A history of the British and Foreign Bible Society

HISTORY:OF:THE:
BRITISH'&FOREIGN
BIBLE: SOCIETY: ::

W . CANTON

/a A

I b*irv p I

CAUFOtNIA I

THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN
BIBLE SOCIETY

A HISTORY OF THE

BRITISH AND FOREIGN

BIBLE SOCIETY

BY

WILLIAM iCANTON

w

WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

VOL. I

LONDON

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.

i 904

CONTENTS

FIRST PERIOD, 1804—1817

CHAPTER I
"THE POWER WITH THE NEED"

PACK

Earlier Bible Distribution — The Originating Causes — The Dearth
of Welsh Bibles — Charles of Bala in London — The 7th March
1804 — A Union of all Denominations 1-14

CHAPTER II
THE SOCIETY FOUNDED

"Without Note or Comment "—The Laws of the Society — The
Society's First Prospectus — Its Welcome on the Continent —
Correspondence with Calcutta — The Threat of Invasion — The
Shadow of Napoleon 15-29

CHAPTER III

GLIMPSES OF THE EARLY MEN

The Clapham Circle — Granville Sharp — Henry Thornton — William
Wilberforce — Lord Teignmouth — His Career in India — The
Rev. J. Hughes— The Rev. C. F. Steinkopff— The Rev. J. Owen 30-45

CHAPTER IV

THE SECRET OF THE SOCIETY'S SUCCESS (l.)

Unforeseen Developments — Rules for the Auxiliaries — Importance
of the Auxiliaries — The Bible Associations — Growth of the
Associations — "A Tax on the Poor" — Ladies' Bible Societies
— Mr Dudley's System 46-62

vi CONTENTS

CHAPTER V

THE SECRET OF THE SOCIETY'S SUCCESS (ll.)

PAGE

Summary of the Auxiliaries — The Liverpool Auxiliary founded —
The Charges against the Society — The Cambridge Auxiliary
— The Norwich Auxiliary — The Gurneys of Earlham — Joseph
John Gurney — The Murder of Mr Perceval — The Oxford
Auxiliary — " Not unto us " 63-83

CHAPTER VI

THE BIBLE CAUSE IN SCOTLAND

David Dale of Glasgow — Scotland in 1804 — The State of the
Highlands — The Gaelic Bible — Gaelic Bible Schools — Growth
of Scottish Auxiliaries — The Edinburgh Bible Society — Roman
Catholic Schools 84-99

CHAPTER VII

THE WORK IN WALES AND IRELAND

Editions in various Tongues — Purchase of 10 Earl Street — The
Channel and Scilly Isles — The Manx Bible — The Work begun
in Ireland — The Hibernian Bible Society — Growth of the Irish
Auxiliaries — The Irish Version — The good Bishop Bedell . 100-118

CHAPTER VIII

THE ISLES OF THE SEA

The Horrors of Newgate — Convicts and Prisoners of War — The
Word sown in France — Effects of these Labours — The Bible
at the Antipodes — Welcome in South Africa — The West Coast
of Africa — The Canaries and Madeira — Modern Greek New
Testament — Malta as a Bible Station — At the Time Christ
suffered 119-142

CONTENTS vii

CHAPTER IX

THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST

PAGK

Distributions in France — Ratisbon and Canstein — The Berlin Bible
Society — The Misery of Prussia — Issue of the Bohemian Bible
— The Bible for Lithuania — Thoughts turned to Turkey —
Pastor Oberlin— Oberlin and the R.T.S 143-162

CHAPTER X

FROM SAGA-LAND TO KALMUK TENTS

J. Paterson and E. Henderson — Copenhagen bombarded — Bible
Work in Stockholm — Tour in Sweden and Lapland — "They
sent us the Bible"— The Czar and the Finns — Russia and
Napoleon — The Mission at Karass — The Moravians at Sarepta
—The Kalmuks 163-183

CHAPTER XI

THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (l.)

Activity of the Basel B.S. — Operations in Hungary — Spread of
Bible Societies — Paterson's Arrival in Russia — Napoleon's
Retreat from Moscow — The Czar and the Bible Society — The
Uprising in Prussia — Interview with the Czar — Growth of
Swedish Societies — The Prussian B.S. founded — Progress in
Central Europe — The Escape of Napoleon — Peace at last . 184-209

CHAPTER XII

THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (II.)

Mr Steinkopff's Second Tour — Mr Henderson in Iceland — A Song
of Thule — Societies in Sweden and Norway — Grants to
Continental Societies — The Death of Henry Martyn — The
Czar's Version in Russ — Pinkerton in South Russia — Interview
with Metternich — Adhesion of Russian Catholics — Spain and
Portugal — The Greenland Eskimo 210-234

viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIII

THE NEW WORLD

PAGE

The United States in 1800-10— The first United States Bible—
The Unitarian Movement — Rarity of the Scriptures — Roman
Catholic Approval — Summary for 1815 — The American B.S.
founded — British North America — The Eskimo of Labrador
— The West Indies — Jamaica and Hayti 235-258

CHAPTER XIV

IN THE EAST (l.)

The Policy of the E.I.C. — At the Shrine of Kali — Hostility to
Missionaries — Indian Versions begun — Carey at Serampore —
The College of Fort- William — First Grant to India — Henry
Martyn — The Bengal Committee at work — The Malayalam
New Testament — The Calcutta Auxiliary 259-281

CHAPTER XV

IN THE EAST (ll.)

John Leyden's Versions — Death of David Brown — Armenian and
Malay Versions — Sabat the Arabian — Martyn's Persian
Testament — Grants to India — The Syriac New Testament —
The Holy Eastern Church — Robert Morrison in China — The
Scriptures in Chinese 282-302

CHAPTER XVI

THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PERIOD

Reply to Dr Wordsworth — Dr Marsh and the Prayer Book — Four
unfriendly Bishops — Anniversary Meetings — The Death of
Bishop Porteus — " There is a Refuge " — Summary of Thirteen
Years 3°3-3i8

CONTENTS ix

SECOND PERIOD, 1817—1834
CHAPTER XVII

THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY

PAGE

Unrecorded Influence — Distress and Reform — " Monthly Extracts"
—Bible Work on the Thames— Owen and Oberlin— The Death
of Oberlin — The Death of Owen — The Apocrypha Difficulty
abroad — Resolutions rejected — A Special Committee — Decision
of the Committee — The Death of Captain Shore — The Scottish
Secession — The Work done in Scotland — The Dearth in the
Highlands 319-350

CHAPTER XVIII
THE TESTS CONTROVERSY

District Agents appointed — The Test Proposals — The Basis of
Union — Conflicting Views — The Exeter Hall Meeting — Gerard
and Baptist Noel — Four District Secretaries— The Grave of
Joseph Hughes — The Death of Lord Teignmouth — Lord
Bexley, Second President 351-369

CHAPTER XIX

THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVE

Distributions in Ireland — Provision for Emigrants — Expenditure
on Home Work — Memorabilia — Pope Leo XII. and the
Society — Resignation of Dr Steinkopff — Engagement of George
Borrow — Death of William Wilberforce — The Negroes' Mid-
night Service — The Gift from England 370-387

CHAPTER XX

THE AUXILIARIES IN FRANCE

The Turkish Bible — Henderson and Paterson resign — The
Protestant B.S. of Paris — Professor Kieffer's Agency — Breton
and Basque Versions — Colportage — Death of Professor KiefFer
—The Work of the Period 388-403

x CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXI

CATASTROPHE IN RUSSIA

PAGE

The Sixth Anniversary — Scriptures in many Tongues — Dr
Pinkerton's Tour — From St Petersburg to Tiflis — The Russ New
Testament — Intrigues against the Society — The Policy of
Seraphim — Suspension of the Russian B.S. — A New Start . 404-422

CHAPTER XXII

THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA

" We must at last return "—The Prussian and Saxon B.S.S.— Dis-
tributions in Bohemia — Steinkopffs Fifth Tour — The Nether-
lands Bible Society — The Parting of the Ways — Hopes of
Reunion — Leander Van Ess — The Frankfort Agency — The
Effect of the Secession 423-444

CHAPTER XXIII

NORTHERN EUROPE AND THE APOCRYPHA

The Danish Bible Societies — The Swedish Bible Society — The
Norwegian Bible Society — Adherence to Custom — The Codex
Argenteus — The Need for Agencies — Dr Paterson's Tour — The
Grants for the Period 445-461

APPENDIX I— THE STORY OF MARY JONES .... 465-470

APPENDIX II — THE AUXILIARY SYSTEM 471-483

APPENDIX III— THE OLD BIBLE HOUSE 484-485

APPENDIX IV— THE CONTINENTAL BIBLE SOCIETY . . . 486-491
INDEX 493

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

LORD TEIGNMOUTH ...... Frontispiece

THE REV. T. CHARLES OF BALA .... Tofacep. 48

THE REV. J. HUGHES ...... 80

THE OLD BIBLE HOUSE, 10 EARL STREET . „ 102

THE REV. J. OWEN ....... 144

CHARLES GRANT ....... 192

GRANVILLE SHARP ....... 240

HENRY THORNTON ....... 288

THE REV. C. F. STEINKOPFF . . . „ 352

FIRST PERIOD, 1804—1817

CHAPTER I

"THE POWER WITH THE NEED"

THE British and Foreign Bible Society was founded on the
7th of March 1804.

In the early days of its activity, to those who looked
back on its origin, it appeared to be "one of the most
remarkable designs of Providence that the thunder of
universal war should have been the harbinger of the still
small voice of the gospel of peace."1 When fifty years had
grouped events into clearer perspective, the thoughtful
began to perceive that the Society was "one of the
many fruits of that religious awakening which took place
in this country in the middle of the i8th century."
Indeed, to understand the spirit of the time which
made this and other associations of the kind possible ;
to appreciate at its real value the character of the men who
founded and maintained them, we must revert to that great
awakening, and trace in their sequence the various results
which sprang from that "passionate impulse of human
sympathy with the wronged and afflicted, which raised
hospitals, endowed charities, built churches, sent mission-
aries to the heathen, supported Burke in his plea for the
Hindu, and Clarkson and Wilberforce in their crusade
against the iniquity of the slave-trade." Unique as it was

1 Speech by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (afterwards Lord Bexley) at the
Mansion House, 6th August 1812. Owen, History of the British and Foreign Bible
Society, vol. ii. p. 324.

VOL. I, A

2 "THE POWER WITH THE NEED" [l8o4.

in its inception and in its object, the Bible Society is not to
be regarded as something apart, either in its adherents or
in its operations. It was but one of God's many ways of
shaping the energies of men to the accomplishment of His
own wise purposes.

The change to a new century has placed us in a position
to take a still larger view. In that intense revival of spiritual
life, and in its splendid efflorescence of philanthropy, we now
recognise the means employed for the divine realisation of a
twofold design. On the one hand, the destiny of England as
"a mother of nations" was already marked out for her; on
the other there was dire need, unless civilisation was to be
thrown back a century, for a protagonist who should cope
with the fury of the Revolution and shatter the colossal
power of Napoleonic tyranny. The revival was to England
what in the days of chivalry the midnight vigil before his
arms in the chapel was to the candidate for knighthood.
When the time came she stood forth armed with the shield
of faith and the sword of the Spirit, and her feet were shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

One dreads to think what the condition of the world might
now have been but for that providential equipment against
the perils which were close at hand. A month after
the aged Wesley had been laid in his grave Mirabeau
passed away, "carrying in his heart the death dirge of the
French monarchy." Intent on the projects of their new
enthusiasm, the Churches pursued their work. In November
1793, when the Goddess of Reason, garlanded with oak
leaves, was being enthroned on the high altar of Notre
Dame, William Carey, the devoted Baptist Missionary, was
sailing within sight of the coast of Bengal. In the follow-
ing year when Robespierre, in the ghastly coxcombry of
sky-blue coat, white stockings, and gold shoe-buckles, was
giving legal sanction to the "existence of the Supreme
Being" and to "that consolatory principle of the im-

i8i7] EARLIER BIBLE DISTRIBUTION 3

mortality of the soul," Samuel Marsden, the Apostle of
New Zealand, had begun his labours among the convicts
of Botany Bay. One scheme of Christian benevolence took
form after another. In 1795 it was the London Missionary
Society; in 1799 the Religious Tract and Church Missionary
Societies ; in 1803 the Sunday School Union ; in 1804 the
British and Foreign Bible Society.

The distribution of the Holy Scriptures was no new idea
sprung upon the religious world. It entered into the scheme
of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which was
founded as far back as 1698. It was one of the objects in 1701
of the Society for the Promotion of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts, or, more accurately, in ''the plantations, colonies,
and factories beyond seas, belonging to the Kingdom of
England." It was included in the operations of the Society
in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (1709);
of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge among
the Poor (1750); and of the Society for the Support and
Encouragement of Sunday Schools (1785). Indeed one
organisation, founded in 1780, bore the name of The
Bible Society, but as its labours were restricted to soldiers
and seamen, the title was afterwards changed to the Naval
and Military Bible Society.1 Later still, and marking a
distinct departure in Christian effort, the French Bible
Society was instituted in 1792, but its designs were wrecked
by the outbreak of the Revolution, and it was finally dis-
solved in 1803.

But if the thought itself was not new, there was in the
manner in which it was adapted by the founders of the
British and Foreign Bible Society a catholicity of design
and an enthusiasm of purpose which even to this day are
amazing. The single-mindedness of the Society, the very
simplicity of its scheme, must have appeared to many

1 The first ship among whose crew the Scriptures were distributed was the
Royal George, which had 400 of the society's Bibles on board when it went down
at Spithead, "with twice four hundred men," on the 2gth August 1782,

4 "THE POWER WITH THE NEED" [l8o4.

fantastic and impracticable. As regarded the objects of
other associations there was experience to appeal to ; here
all seemed pure speculation. To print the Scriptures with-
out note or comment, to scatter them broadcast, not only in
these islands but throughout the peoples of the world ! It
would perhaps have been consonant with human nature
that Christian people, attracted by the novelty and piety of
the plan, should have eagerly helped to give it effect, and
that in the course of a few years it should have quietly
lapsed into the background and have been forgotten. Now,
indeed, we are able to see that the Bible is the "best
of missionaries " ; and time has proved that the Society
has not only been blessed from year to year in the per-
formance of its own distinctive work, but that it has enjoyed
the privilege of supplementing the efforts and of minister-
ing to the requirements of other religious organisations.
Indeed, it is one of the arresting coincidences which mark
its origin, that just at the time when Christian Missions on
a large scale were established, there should have sprung up
this Society which was to give them breadth and per-
manence. But what a clear spiritual insight must have
illumined the minds of those early workers ; how their
hearts must have been strengthened by their confidence
that, without the aid of any human words of guidance, the
Word of God sufficed for the needs of the souls of men,
and that God Himself would not fail to provide for the
joyous acceptance of His message.

Nor is this the only respect in which the foundation of
the Society strikes the mind as a memorable event. So far
as human agency is concerned, it may be said to have owed
its existence to chance. Step by step seems to have been
taken, less through natural foresight and constructive skill
than through the flashings and promptings of a special
intuition. "Almost everything," writes Mr Owen, the first
historian of the Society, — "almost everything that is wise

,8i7] THE ORIGINATING CAUSES 5

and efficient in the practical departments of the institution
arose out of accidental and extemporaneous discussion."
The simple facts warrant what might otherwise appear
an extravagant statement, that there has rarely been an
organisation the framing of which has so clearly shown
that the casual, the fortuitous, the uncalculated, may be but
the earthly disguises of the divinely appointed, and that
those so-called "chances, which the best and sincerest men
think providential,"1 are in reality guidances, and, if rightly
understood, may even be commands.

The circumstances which led to the formation of the
Society originated in Wales. During the closing decades
of the century, and especially in the years following the
great spiritual awakening in 1791-3, the scarcity of the
Welsh version of the Scriptures had been keenly felt by
the people and their religious teachers in the Principality.
Applications had been made to the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge, which was the only source from
which supplies could be expected. Unhappily, the Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which had done noble
work in the past, and for which a future of renewed vigour
and world-wide usefulness was still in store, was at that
time suffering from declining energy and straitened
means. The five hundred Welsh Bibles, which was all
that could then be obtained from that quarter, merely
emphasised the destitution of the country, and stimulated
earnest Christians to seek a remedy.

Prominent among these last was the Rev. Thomas
Charles of Bala. A zealous, indefatigable pastor, bright
and sunny of temper, possessed of a peculiar faculty for
influencing the young, he had set himself heart and soul
to the task of enlightening the spiritual darkness which en-
veloped North Wales. His father was a farmer of small
means, but Charles had in early manhood been unexpectedly

1 Ruskin, The Pleasures of England, par. 102.

6 "THE POWER WITH THE NEED" [1804-

enabled to go up to Oxford, and when his residence there
was, like Whitefield's, on the point of being abruptly closed
by the failure of his resources, Providence sent him the help
he needed for the remainder of his stay at the University.
In 1777 we find him spending the vacation at Olney with
that marvellous Evangelical, John Newton, who from the
horrors of the Guinea slave-trade had passed to the in-
spiring ministry of George Whitefield, and who was now
the friend of the unhappy poet Cowper, the almoner of
the munificent John Thornton, and the counsellor of
Thomas Scott, the commentator. In 1780 Charles was
ordained, but there seemed to be no place for him within
the Church of England. " I am a Churchman by principle,"
he declared, but certain Churchmen could not away with
his too faithful and sharp-spoken preaching. Three curacies
in succession had to be surrendered, and at last he threw in
his lot with the Calvinistic Methodists of Wales. Summer
and winter among the wild hills he carried the tidings of
the Gospel, founding Sunday schools as he went, and
supervising the itinerant schoolmasters whom he provided
at his own expense for the benefit of the scattered villages.
It was rarely in those years that he came upon a copy of
the Bible. On the contrary, one heard of some pious child
going for miles over the hills to read a chapter at a house
in happy possession of the Word of God. One follows
that youthful figure in fancy, summer and winter, save
when the driving snow obliterates the wild track, and it is
not strange that in later days the sweet Welsh maiden l
should attract the interest of a new generation, and that
her story should become, as it were, the initial incident in
the history of the Society.

As early as 1787 Charles had been in correspondence
with Thomas Scott regarding this dearth of the Word of
God, but with no satisfactory results. During the revival

1 See Appendix I. for the story of Mary Jones.

I8i7] THE DEARTH OF WELSH BIBLES 7

in North Wales, fresh efforts were made to persuade the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge to print an
edition of 10,000 copies. The Society, whose Bible work
was only part of their scheme, questioned, doubted,
declined ; they did not believe the sale would justify the
large expenditure that would be incurred. It was not till
1796 that they consented to undertake the venture; and in
1799 when the edition, which consisted of 10,000 Bibles and
2000 extra Testaments, was published, it did not satisfy the
needs of even a fourth of the country. Whole districts,
especially in Montgomery, Cardigan, and Carmarthen, were
left unprovided for.

In the autumn of that year, while crossing the mountains,
Mr Charles suffered from frost-bite, and fell so seriously
ill that he was not expected to recover. At a special
prayer-meeting at Bala, it is related, there was urgent
supplication that the Lord would hear, . as He had heard
Hezekiah, and add to the days of His servant, if it were but
fifteen years. The incident made a profound impression on
Mr Charles ; and, strange to say, it was in 1814, at the
close of the fifteenth year, that he was called to the reward
of his labours.

On his recovery once more he joined his friends — among
whom the most active was the Rev. Thomas Jones of
Creaton — in their efforts to obtain a further supply of the
Welsh Scriptures. The final answer came in 1800, when
the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge stated that
they had no intention of publishing another edition. Various
plans were now projected for an independent issue by
private subscription, but all without success.

Indeed, apart from the poverty of the people in
Wales, it did not seem an auspicious time for such under-
takings. The country was threatened with invasion. In
the autumn of 1800, the First Consul began to mass his
forces against us ; by the following July a chain of camps

8 "THE POWER WITH THE NEED" [l8o4-

extended along the coast from Ostend to Brest, and ships,
gunboats, transports were collected for an overwhelming
descent. Our own volunteers were ready to march ; parks
of artillery stood harnessed for the bugle call ; strong
picquets were mounted along the cliffs ; night signals from
the Nore to Falmouth were ready to flash tidings, and a
line of battle-ships patrolled the entire length of the French
sea-board. On either side of the Straits glasses showed the
movement of troops, and on the memorable 3rd of August
1801 thousands of spectators on the heights of Dover and
the French hills watched Nelson's attack on Boulogne.

The Peace of Amiens brought a surcease to these dis-
tractions and anxieties. In April London was illuminated,
and immediately afterwards ships were hurriedly paid
off, and the militia and fencible regiments disbanded.
Prosperity and amity crowned this return of better days.
The English flocked across to the Continent ; there were
as many as twelve thousand of them in Paris in September.
The harvest had been abundant everywhere in the kingdom,
and by the close of the year the price of wheat had fallen
from 765. to 585. 3d. a quarter.

And here, incidentally, two details may be mentioned.
On an application from the University of Cambridge, the
Lord Chancellor this year decided that Bibles printed in
Scotland could not be legally sold in England. The second
point is more closely related to the interest of our story.
Shortly after the declaration of peace, Mr Joseph Hardcastle,
the treasurer of the London Missionary Society, formed
one of a committee sent by his association to inquire in
Paris as to the prospects of starting evangelistic work
there. They found the ten-days' week of the worshippers
of the Goddess of Reason abolished, and the Sunday restored
to respect, but for three days they sought in vain for a
single copy of the Bible ; and on their return their society
resolved to distribute an edition of the New Testament in

I8i7] CHARLES OF BALA IN LONDON 9

French, and voted ^"848 for the diffusion of Christian
literature in France and Italy.

Mr Hardcastle, who was one of the merchant-princes of
the period, was also a member of the committee of the
Religious Tract Society, of which his partner, Mr Reyner,
was treasurer. Their premises were in Lower Thames
Street,1 and overlooked the river, close by the Old Swan
Stairs, that ancient landing-place at which, in a white sheet,
with a burning taper in her hand, a Duchess of Gloucester
once did penance, and which marked the western limit of
the waters of the Free Fishermen in those bygone days
when one might see, and not merely

" dream of London, small and white and clean."

The committee meetings of the London Missionary Society
and the Religious Tract Society were held in the counting-
house, and it was here, in the early morning of the 7th
December of this same year (1802), that Mr Charles, then
in town for one of his regular periods of service at
Lady Huntingdon's chapel, Spa Fields, submitted to the
Religious Tract Society committee the besetting question :
"How a large and cheap edition of the Bible could be had
in Welsh, and how, if possible, a permanent repository
of Bibles could be procured, that there might be no more
scarcity of them among the poor Welsh."

Mr Charles was a country member of that committee,
and in view of the bede-roll of the future Society, it is
interesting to note that among those present were the
secretary, the Rev. Joseph Hughes, Baptist minister in
the "pleasant village" of Battersea ; the foreign secretary,
the Rev. C. Steinkopff, pastor of the German Lutheran
chapel in the Savoy ; Mr Tarn, Mr Reyner, and Mr Alers.

1 Identified and described by Mr Henry Morris in his interesting booklet, A
Memorable Room.

2 In 1 80 1 the population of London was 864,845 ; that of Manchester and
Liverpool 84,020 and 77,653. The total population of England was 8,331,434,
and that of Wales 541,546.

io "THE POWER WITH THE NEED" [l8o4-

In the course of the discussion initiated by Mr Charles,
Mr Hughes uttered the momentous suggestion: "Surely
a society might be formed for the purpose ; and if
for Wales, why not for the Kingdom ; why not for the
whole world ? " It was hailed with enthusiasm ; week by
week the project was debated ; friends were approached ;
appeal was made to the public — through an admirable
essay by Mr Hughes, The Excellency of the Holy Scrip-
tures: an Argument for their more general Dispersion,
— to assist in founding the " first institution that ever
emanated from one nation for the good of all " ; a constitu-
tion was drafted by Mr Samuel Mills, who lived to serve
for forty-three years on the Committee of the Society which
he did so much to organise, and at the general meeting of
the Religious Tract Society in May 1803, the urgent need
for the association was pressed with fervid eloquence.

A few days later, and the war bugles were again blowing ;
once more an army of invasion was being massed from the
Seine to the Texel ; 11,000 English subjects of every age
and description, who happened to be travelling in France,
were seized as prisoners of war, and a similar act of barbarity
was ordered in Holland, Switzerland and Italy. Britain
promptly took up the challenge. The country became a
huge camp with 100,000 troops of the line, 80,000 militia,
and 340,000 volunteers under arms.

Undisturbed, the committee of the Religious Tract Society
continued their weekly sittings, pursuing their enquiries
into the supply of the Scriptures at home and abroad, and
securing the co-operation of influential supporters, — who do
not appear to have been easily found. Apparently it did
not trouble their peace that the Elbe and the Weser were
closed against their shipping, that the forests of Hanover
were being felled for his navy by "the obscure Corsican,"
and that all the ship-carpenters and boat-builders in France,
between the age of fifteen and sixty, had been requisitioned

i8i7] THE 7TH MARCH 1804 n

by the Government. As little were they concerned about
the thousand British beacons which recalled the days of
the Armada, the martello towers which squatted low on
the sea-line, or the reviews held in Hyde Park by the good
King George, who, it was pleasant to them to remember,
had expressed the pious wish that every child in his
dominions might be taught to read the Scriptures.

By the beginning of 1804 they had won the allegiance
of such distinguished men as William Wilberforce, Granville
Sharp, Charles Grant, Zachary Macaulay, Lord Teignmouth,
and Henry Thornton ; and at last the time seemed to have
come for them to test the feasibility of the scheme by the
verdict of a public meeting. An address was accordingly
distributed among those who were thought likely to favour
the proposal. A single passage will be sufficient to indicate
the spirit of faith and courage which incited the projectors : —

"If the present period is not the most auspicious to
such undertakings, neither is there any danger of its being
fatal to them. 'The wall of Jerusalem,' it is written, 'shall
be built in troublous times.' In fact, how many successful
efforts for the promotion of human happiness have been
made amidst the clouds and tempests of national calamity !
It also should be remembered that the present is the only
period of which we are sure. Our days of service are both
few and uncertain : whatsoever, therefore, our hands find
to do, let us do it with our might."

On Wednesday, the 7th of March 1804, the public
meeting was held at the London Tavern, 123 Bishopsgate
Street.1 About three hundred persons of various religious
denominations were present. Mr Granville Sharp presided,
and after Mr Robert Cowie, Mr William Alers,2 Mr Samuel

1 Situated on the west side of the street, and occupying the site now covered by
the premises of the Royal Bank of Scotland. There also the annual meeting was held
in May 1810. All subsequent annual gatherings took place in the Freemasons' Hall,
Great Queen Street, up to 1831, when the Society met for the first time in Exeter
Hall.

2 Afterwards Mr W. Alers Hankey.

12 "THE POWER WITH THE NEED" [1804-

Mills and Mr Hughes had spoken on the need for the
Society, and the nature and range of its contemplated work,
Mr Steinkopff described the scarcity of the Scriptures in
the foreign parts he had visited, and appealed to the com-
passion and munificence of British Christians on behalf
of the spiritual wants of his German fellow-countrymen.
The Rev. John Owen, curate and lecturer of Fulham,
and chaplain to the Bishop of London, who had attended
with much hesitation, now rose on the spur of "an impulse
which," as he expressed it, "he had neither the inclination
nor the power to disobey." What he felt may be best
described in his own words : —

"Surrounded by a multitude of Christians whose
doctrinal and ritual differences had for ages kept them
asunder, and who had been taught to regard each other
with a sort of pious estrangement, or rather of consecrated
hostility ; and reflecting on the object and the end which
had brought them so harmoniously together, he felt an
impression which no length of time would entirely remove.
The scene was new : nothing analogous to it had perhaps
been exhibited before the public since Christians had begun
to organize against each other the strife of separation,
and to carry into their own camp that war which they
ought to have waged in concert against the common enemy.
To him it appeared to indicate the dawn of a new era in
Christendom ; and to portend something like the return of
those auspicious days when the multitude of them that
believed were of ' one heart and one soul ' ; and when, as
a consequence of that union, to a certain degree at least,
'the Word of God mightily grew and prevailed.'"1

Inspired by these deep emotions, he threw in the weight
of his advocacy, and moved the adoption of the resolutions
establishing the British and Foreign Bible Society — the
name suggested by Mr Hughes in place of the original

1 Owen, History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, vol. i. p. 44.

i8i7] A UNION OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 13

cumbrous title l — and embodying the general form and con-
stitution of the organisation. These were carried with
enthusiastic unanimity, an executive committee was elected,
Mr Henry Thornton, M.P., was appointed Treasurer, and
a sum exceeding £700 was subscribed on the spot.

Is it surprising that those who took part in these
occurrences regarded the 7th of March as "fixing an im-
portant epoch in the religious history of mankind," or
that they discerned "the impress of a divine direction" in
the events which had led up to it? At that time it must
have seemed one of the most improbable things in the world
that different communions of Christians, subordinating
their personal convictions and prejudices to the achievement
of one sacred purpose, should consent to unity of action.
By the English Church at large the Evangelical clergy
were viewed with dislike, often with aversion and contempt :
the intolerance of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, even towards its dissenting subscribers,2 seems
to us now incredible in a religious organisation ; Mr Owen
himself, in honourable and feeling words, confessed the
shame with which he often afterwards looked back on the
astonishment he had felt at Quakers having been invited
to take part in a work designed for the glory of God and
the salvation of souls ! Yet it is, to-day, abundantly
manifest that of all the conditions essential to success,
the complete absence of a sectarian spirit, the generous
fusion of all denominations, was the most indispensable.

Such, and at a period so precarious, was the genesis
of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which, as it
were, from a grain of mustard seed waxed a great tree ;
which, during the long course of a hundred years, has,
under the vigilant scrutiny of a Committee unsurpassed in
temper, judgment and assiduity, been a prompt and

1 "A society for promoting a more extensive circulation of the Scriptures at
home and abroad."

2 Stock, History of the Church Missionary Society, vol. i. pp. 44-46,

i4 "THE POWER WITH THE NEED" [1804-1817

munificent auxiliary in all forms of Christian effort and
service ; which has brought the Word of Life within reach
of the poorest at home, and at an expenditure of ^13,937,000
has distributed 180,000,000 copies of Scripture in languages
spoken by seven-tenths of the population of the planet.
Sanguine as he was, William Wilberforce thought
;£ 10,000 the highest point in annual income that the
Society could ever possibly reach. In its fourth year the
revenue exceeded ,£12,000, in the sixth ^27,000, in
the ninth ^70,000 ; with fluctuations it rose to more than
,£100,000 in 1851, and since 1883 it has not fallen so low
as ^"200,000. The records of an ordinary commercial estab-
lishment, trading for such a lapse of time and on such a scale
of operations, would command attention. It cannot but
be that a wondering interest, a deep emotion, will be
awakened by the annals of an organisation which has been
the almoner of five generations, whose labours have been
so far-reaching, and whose object has been the eternal
happiness of mankind.

" Came the Whisper, came the Vision, came the Power with the Need."

CHAPTER II

THE SOCIETY FOUNDED

WITHIN a week of the formation of the Society the Com-
mittee proceeded to business. At the outset they were
confronted, in the appointment of officers, with the difficulty
and delicacy of making an arrangement which should com-
mend itself to all denominations. Here, too, one discerns
the impress of that divine direction which had already com-
bined so many sensitive and mobile elements.

The first suggestion, that Mr Hughes should be chosen
sole Secretary, was withdrawn, and denominational suscepti-
bilities were safeguarded by the appointment of three
Secretaries : the Rev. Josiah Pratt, secretary of the Church
Missionary Society, to represent the Established Church ;
the Rev. J. Hughes, to represent the Nonconformist
Churches ; and the Rev. C. F. Steinkopff to represent the
foreign Protestant Churches. A few weeks later the Rev.
John Owen was elected in Mr Pratt's place, on the earnest
recommendation of that gentleman. Mr Tarn was appointed
assistant-secretary, and Mr Thomas Smith collector.

This initial experience made clear the necessity of
applying the same representative principle to the Committee
itself. It was accordingly resolved, on a far-sighted proposal
drawn up by Mr Pratt, that the Committee should consist
exclusively of laymen ; that of the thirty-six members
prescribed by the constitution, there should be fifteen
members of the Church of England, fifteen members of
other Christian communions, and six foreigners resident
near London. Provision was also made for the admission

18

16 THE SOCIETY FOUNDED [l8o4-

of clergymen and ministers to a seat and a vote, on the
terms which made them members of the Society.

These important modifications were adopted at a general
meeting of subscribers on the 2nd of May, and through the
hundred years which have since gone by, this representative
character has marked the constitution and operations of the
Society. At one of the early meetings a distinguished
speaker bore testimony to the fact that "from the part
taken and the sentiments uttered by the persons who take
the lead in the conduct of the Society's affairs, he would
not be able to ascertain who are the Churchmen and who
are the Dissenters."1 The same tribute, which might have
been justly paid at any time from that day onward, is
equally appropriate at the close of the century.

The following is a list of the first Committee on its
reformed and permanent basis. As is becoming in the
case of pioneers, their names, inscribed on a marble tablet,
occupy a place of honour in the Bible House.

THE FIRST COMMITTEE

William Alers, Esq. Robert Howard, Esq.

T. Babington, Esq. R. Lea, Esq., Alderman.

Thomas Bernard, Esq. Zachary Macaulay, Esq.

Joseph Benwell, Esq. A. Maitland, Esq.

Wilson Birkbeck, Esq. Ambrose Martin, Esq.

Henry Boase, Esq. Samuel Mills, Esq.

Joseph Bunnell, Esq. Joseph Reyner, Esq.

J. Butterworth, Esq. H. Schroeder, Esq.

Robert Cowie, Esq. Granville Sharp, Esq.

Charles Crawford, Esq. R. Stainforth, Esq.

John Fenn, Esq. Joseph Smith, Esq.

Sebastian Fridag, Esq. James Stephen, Esq.

Charles Grant, Esq. Robert Steven, Esq.

Claes Grill, Esq. C. Sundius, Esq.

Joseph Hardcastle, Esq. Anthony Wagner, Esq.

W. Henry Hoare, Esq. W. Wilberforce, Esq.

Thomas Hodson, Esq. Joseph Wilson, Esq.

John Daniel Hose, Esq. George Wolff, Esq.

1 Owen, History, vol. i. p. 52.

i8i7] "WITHOUT NOTE OR COMMENT" 17

In connection with these constitutional amendments it
should here be mentioned that, by a singular oversight, a
provision which appeared in the first draft, to the effect
that the Authorised Version should be the only one in
English adopted by the Society, was omitted when the
Laws and Regulations were enacted. Similarly, notwith-
standing the unanimous intention of excluding everything
sectarian, the insertion of a distinct clause to that effect
was overlooked. Apparently the correction of these inad-
vertencies was due to the friendly watchfulness of the
Bishop of London (Dr Porteus), whom Mr Owen had
interested in the welfare of the movement, and whose
hesitation in regard to the projected Society had been
overcome by the assurance that a fundamental rule of the
Society was "the circulation of the Scriptures, and of the
Scriptures only, without note or comment" The following
clause, confirmed at the first annual meeting, was there-
fore added to the first article: — "The only copies in the
languages of the United Kingdom to be circulated by the
Society shall be the Authorised Version, without note or
comment"; and at a later date the all-important phrase,
"without note or comment," was, for the sake of a more
emphatic explicitness, transferred to the middle of the
article, after the words " Holy Scriptures."

Whether or not the full significance of the phrase was
realised by those who adopted it, it echoed the cry of the
ancient martyr-Church of the Waldenses, "The Bible whole
and alone," and it gave a direct retort to the decision of
the Holy See, that every translation of the Bible, in whole
or in part, shall receive the imprimatur of the Bishop of
the diocese in which it is to be published, and shall be
accompanied by explanatory notes.1

1 Canones et Decreta SS. CEciimenici Consilii Tridentini, Sessio iv. See also
Lasserre, Preface to Les Saints Evangiles, p. viii., which contains an earnest plea
for the circulation of the Scriptures, and historic proof of the custom in the Early
Church.

VOL. I. B

i8 THE SOCIETY FOUNDED [1804-

The objects, principles, and method of the Society will,
however, be found most lucidly stated in the text of the
revised constitution. With the exception of the emendations
just described, it differed but slightly from the original draft ;
and, with a few changes to be noticed in due course, it
remains the same at the present time.

I. The designation of this Society shall be the British and Foreign Bible
Society, of which the sole object shall be to encourage a 1 wider circulation
of the Holy Scriptures without note or comment: the only copies in the
languages of the United Kingdom to be circulated by the Society shall be
the Authorised Version.2

II. This Society shall add its endeavours to those employed by other
societies for circulating the Scriptures through the British Dominions ; and
shall also, according to its ability, extend its influence to other countries,
whether Christian, Mahometan, or Pagan.

III. Each Subscriber of one guinea annually shall be a Member.

IV. Each Subscriber of ten guineas at one time shall be a Member for
Life.

V. Each Subscriber of five guineas annually shall be a Governor.

VI. Each Subscriber of fifty pounds at one time, or who shall, by one
additional payment, increase his original subscription to fifty pounds, shall be
a Governor for Life.

VII. Governors shall be entitled to attend and vote at all Meetings of
the Committee.

VIII. An Executor paying a bequest of fifty pounds shall be a Member
for Life ; or of one hundred pounds, a Governor for Life.

IX. A Committee shall be appointed to conduct the business of the
Society, consisting of thirty-six laymen, six of whom shall be foreigners,
resident in London or its vicinity ; half the remainder shall be Members of
the Church of England, and the other half Members of other denominations
of Christians. Twenty-seven 3 of the above number, who shall have most
frequently attended, shall be eligible for re-election for the ensuing year.

1 In 1856 "a" was changed to " the wider circulation."

2 On the Qth October 1901 it was unanimously decided at a special meeting
of the Committee, that after the words "without note or comment" Article I.
should read: "The only copies in the English language to be circulated by the
Society shall be either the Authorised Version of 1611, or the Revised Version of
1881-5, or both."

3 On the 29th January 1872 "twenty-seven" was changed to "thirty" at a
special meeting of the Committee, and the alteration was confirmed at a general
meeting of the Society.

I8i7] THE LAWS OF THE SOCIETY 19

The Committee shall appoint all officers, except the Treasurer, and call
Special General Meetings, and shall be charged with procuring for the
Society suitable patronage, both British and Foreign.

X. Each Member of the Society shall be entitled, under the direction of
the Committee, to purchase Bibles and Testaments at the Society's prices,
which shall be as low as possible.

XI. The Annual Meeting of the Society shall be held on the first
Wednesday in May, when the Treasurer and Committee shall be chosen,
the accounts presented, and the proceedings of the foregoing year reported.

XII. The President, Vice-Presidents and Treasurer shall be considered
ex qffirio Members of the Committee.

XIII. Every Clergyman or Dissenting Minister who is a Member of the
Society shall be entitled to attend and vote at all Meetings of the
Committee.

XIV. The Secretaries for the time being shall be considered as
Members of the Committee ; but no person1 deriving any emolument from
the Society shall have that privilege.

XV. At the General Meetings, and Meetings of the Committee, the
President, or, in his absence, the Vice-President first upon the list then
present ; and in the absence of all the Vice-Presidents, the Treasurer ; and
in his absence, such Member as shall be voted for that purpose, shall
preside at the Meeting.2

XVI. The Committee shall meet on the first Monday in every month, or
oftener if necessary.

XVII. The Committee shall have the power of nominating such persons
as have rendered essential services to the Society, either Members for Life
or Governors for Life.

XVIII. The Committee shall also have the power of nominating
Honorary Members from among foreigners who have promoted the objects
of the Society.

XIX. The whole of the Minutes of every General Meeting shall be
signed by the Chairman.3

Another judicious and graceful service on the part of the
Bishop of London was the suggestion that Lord Teignmouth
was singularly fitted for the office of President. His lord-

1 Altered in 1823 to "no other person."

2 In 1886, Feb. 15, Article XV. was revised and divided, so as to read :

" XV. The President shall be entitled to preside at all General Meetings, and in
his absence such person as shall be nominated by the Committee.

"XVI. The Meetings of the Committee shall be presided over by a Chairman, to
be chosen by themselves, either for a particular meeting or for a period, as they may
from time to time decide."

3 In consequence of the Apocrypha controversy, there were added at the General
Meetings in 1826 and 1827 four supplementary provisions, which will appear in their
proper place. See chap. i. , Second Period.

20 THE SOCIETY FOUNDED [1804-

ship heartily accepted the honour which the Committee pro-
posed to confer upon him, and, as the experience of thirty
years testified, no appointment could have been happier,
more highly esteemed by the recipient, or more beneficial
to the Society.

Immediately afterwards Dr Porteus and the Bishop of
Durham (the Hon. Shute Barrington) sent in their names
as annual subscribers of five guineas. A few weeks later
both these prelates and the Bishops of Exeter and St
David's (the Hon. George Pelham and Dr Burgess) accepted
the position of Vice-Presidents, and the list was completed
by the addition of the names of Sir William Pepperell,
Bart., Vice- Admiral (afterwards Lord) Gambier, Charles
Grant, William Wilberforce, and Henry Thornton.

The general work of the Society was divided and ap-
portioned to various sub-committees, over whose operations
and decisions the Committee retained complete power of
confirmation, modification, and rescission. The constitution
required that the latter should meet on the first Monday
of every month, but from the outset the multiplicity of
business has necessitated frequent adjournments to inter-
mediate dates. Few causes have been more exacting in
their demands on the time, energy, and zeal of their sup-
porters, and the minute books furnish ample evidence that
the call has at all times been responded to with promptitude
and devotion. The modification of Art. XIV. of the con-
stitution was occasioned by the decision — which was not
arrived at until 1823, after Mr Owen's death, and eighteen
years after the foundation — that a salary should be attached
to the office of Secretary ; even then the amount was deter-
mined more "by an economical attention to the finances
of the Society " — the revenue at that time exceeded ,£90,000
— "than by consideration of a compensation for services
which no salary could adequately remunerate." To
husband the resources of the Society for its one great

i8i7] THE SOCIETY'S FIRST PROSPECTUS 21

purpose, to save personal expenses, to devote every penny
if possible to the actual production and distribution of
the Divine Word, were objects that were never lost sight
of. Over and over again it is found on record that the
honorarium for special services which called for such
a recognition was declined in whole or in part, and
devoted as a thank-offering for the privilege of sharing in
the work. Grants of ^300, ^500, ^750, ^1000, ^2000,
to Berlin, Abo, Copenhagen, Calcutta, form a significant
contrast to the ^300 assigned for the services of the
Secretary. On the Committee and sub-committees, poli-
ticians, public men, bankers, lawyers, merchants gave, and
have always given, their time and experience both lavishly
and gratuitously.

Several steps were now taken to give due publicity to
the existence and object of the Society.

An official communication was made by the President
to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and to
the Association in Dublin for discountenancing Vice and
promoting the Knowledge and Practice of the Christian
Religion.

A prospectus, in which the annexed passages occur, was
widely distributed, and struck a sympathetic chord in the
heart of the country :

"The reasons which call for such an institution chiefly refer to the
prevalence of ignorance, superstition, and idolatry over so large a portion
of the world ; the limited nature of the respectable societies [previously
mentioned], and their acknowledged insufficiency to supply the demand
for Bibles in the United Kingdom and foreign countries ; and the recent
attempts which have been made on the part of infidelity to discredit the
evidence, vilify the character, and destroy the influence of Christianity.

" The exclusive object of this Society is to diffuse the knowledge of the
Holy Scriptures by circulating them in the different languages spoken
throughout Great Britain and Ireland ; and also, according to the extent
of its funds, by promoting the printing of them in foreign languages and
the distribution of them in foreign countries.

" The principles upon which this undertaking will be conducted are as

22 THE SOCIETY FOUNDED [1804-

comprehensive as the nature of the object suggests that they should be.
In the execution of the plan it is proposed to embrace the common support
of Christians at large, and to invite the concurrence of persons of every
description who profess to regard the Scriptures as the proper standard
of faith."

Assurances of approval and co-operation poured in from
all parts of the three kingdoms. Thanks to the good offices
of a warm friend to the Society, the pious and philanthropic
Mr Dale of Glasgow, the Presbytery of Glasgow and the
Synod of Glasgow and Ayr directed that collections should
be made at all places of worship within their bounds ;
various classes of Nonconformists in Scotland were active
contributors ; in Wales, where the movement was recom-
mended by Dr Warren, Bishop of Bangor, "there were
none of our poor people," wrote Mr Charles, "willing to
live and die without contributing their mites towards forward-
ing so glorious a design " ; and these mites, together with
the offerings of Welsh congregations, amounted in the
course of a few months to ;£ 1,900. The subscriptions,
donations, and legacies to the Society during the year
showed an aggregate of ^5,592.

From the inquiries which were made by the officials
and friends of the Society it became apparent that the
dearth of the Scriptures was not confined to Wales ; it
existed to an extent perhaps even greater in other parts of
the kingdom ; in the south of Ireland, it was reported, not
more than a third of the Protestant families were provided,
while among Roman Catholic families, which were eight
to one, one family perhaps in five hundred possessed a
Bible. Advantage was at once taken of the process of
stereotyping, which had just been revived in London,1 and
which secured a cheaper and a constant provision ; and an

1 The introduction of stereotype is involved in obscurity. The Salhtst of William
Ged of Edinburgh, printed non typis mobilibus sed tabellis sen laminis fusis, of which
there is a copy in the Royal Institution, London, bears date 1744, and Dutch folio
and quarto Bibles were stereotyped in Holland in the eighteenth century.

i8i7] ITS WELCOME ON THE CONTINENT 23

order was placed with the Cambridge University Press for
a large number of English Bibles and Testaments, and for
20,000 Welsh Bibles and 5000 Testaments.

It was not in these islands alone, however, that the Bible
Society was heartily welcomed. From his visits abroad,
his old connection with the Christian Society of Basel, and
his position as foreign secretary of the Religious Tract
Society, Mr Steinkopff was in touch with the religious
leaders and associations of the Continent. In Germany,
Switzerland, and elsewhere the formation of the Society
was hailed with delight, and even among Roman Catholics
it was regarded with interest. Communications were also
received from M. Oberlin, the celebrated pastor of Ban
de la Roche in Alsace, of whom we shall hear more later.

These and other correspondents gave a melancholy
picture of many parts of the Continent. Infidel writings
had spread their corruption far and wide, and fire and
sword had completed the work of desolation. In Austria,
Styria, Carinthia, and Hungary the need was extreme.
"When sometimes I am privileged to give away a Bible
or New Testament," wrote Mr Kiesling, a Nuremberg
merchant and a correspondent of the Religious Tract
Society, who travelled in these parts, "father and mother,
son and daughter, are running after me, thanking me a
hundred and a thousand times, kissing my hand and my
coat, and exclaiming with tears of joy, ' May God bless
you ; may the Lord Jesus bless you in time and to all
eternity.'"

Mr Kiesling's letter led the Committee, who had with
clear prevision adopted the policy of self-help in preference
to temporary relief, to volunteer a grant of £100 if an
association like their own were founded in Germany.
Accordingly, on Ascension Day (loth May) 1804, the
first Auxiliary Bible Society on the Continent was founded
at Nuremberg, and a 5d. edition of 5000 copies of the

24 THE SOCIETY FOUNDED [1804-

German New Testament was at once ordered for distribution
in Austria and Germany. One thousand of these were
placed by the London Committee at the disposal of a
pious priest for distribution, by sale or gift, among
the Roman Catholics of Swabia and Bavaria, with assur-
ances of the sincere disposition of the Society to afford,
as far as it consistently could, every aid to members
of his communion. A further grant of ^200 was after-
wards made to the Nuremberg Society towards an ample
impression of the complete Lutheran Bible. Two years
later the society was transferred from the "quaint old
town of art and song" to Basel, which then became for
some time the principal centre of distribution for Germany
and the neighbouring countries.

A similar grant of £100 was offered for the promotion
of a society in Berlin, where there was a great need for
the Scriptures in Bohemian, and where there was a
prospect of co-operation among influential persons. With
a brief mention of a donation of £20 to Pastor Oberlin, to
enlarge his distribution of German and French Bibles
among the mountain villages of Alsace, this brief view
of the Society's initial relations with the Continent may
close for the present.

The deliberations of the Committee had taken a still
wider range. Early in the year their attention was drawn
to what was reported to be the MS. of a Chinese trans-
lation of the New Testament in the British Museum, and
they had indulged the hope that its publication might be
the means of introducing the knowledge of the Gospel
among the three hundred millions of the Chinese Empire.
On obtaining the opinions of experts, however, and dis-
covering that the MS. was a harmony of the Gospels,
apparently made from the Vulgate under the direction of
Jesuit missionaries, and that each bound copy would cost
the Society about two guineas to produce, they decided

1817] UUKKKSFUWUKNUIS VV11H UALUU 1 1A 25

to proceed no further. In due time the attempt, which
thus failed in London, was, with the aid of the Society,
accomplished under more advantageous conditions in
Serampore and Canton.

The incident led to an invitation to the Baptist
missionaries at Serampore and friends at Calcutta to con-
stitute themselves into a committee for correspondence with
the Society. The invitation was accepted, and these rela-
tions prepared the way for the Auxiliary Bible Societies
of Calcutta, Bombay, Colombo, and Batavia.

The first application of the funds of the Society to the
production of a foreign version of the Scriptures under
its own direction was made in favour of 2000 copies of a
Mohawk-English Gospel of St John, translated by Captain
Norton, a chief of the Six-Nation Indians in Upper Canada
— old and steady allies of Great Britain, to whom the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel had sent a
mission in 1702.

It was in connection with this translation that the
principle of "without note or comment" was first put in
force. Captain Norton had prefixed to the Gospel a
spirited address to the Six Nations, but as soon as this
was discovered it was ordered to be withdrawn as quite
incompatible with a fundamental law of the Society. Five
years later one of the Oneida braves who visited Salem
carried in his bosom a copy of the little book.

Now there occurred an episode in the Committee's
experience, which, owing to misrepresentations, caused
some annoyance at the time. It related to the text which
Mr Charles of Bala had been commissioned to prepare for
the new edition of the Welsh Bible. On the 2ist January
1805, the Committee became aware that, "by order of
the Board " of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, its secretary had forwarded to all the Bishops
who were Vice-Presidents of the Bible Society an extract

26 THE SOCIETY FOUNDED [l8o4.

from a letter from the Rev. John Roberts ("an eminent
Welsh scholar employed by the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge in correcting the press of the last
Oxford edition of the Welsh Bible "), protesting against
the improper orthographical alterations which had been
made by Mr Charles. Into the technical merits it is
unnecessary to enter, for the Bible Society, on being
informed that the Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge, whose energies had evidently been stimulated by
recent events, had determined to print an edition of the
Welsh Bible, agreed, for the sake of uniformity, to adopt
the same text. In this way the controversy was brought
to an amicable conclusion.

About this time the Committee adopted the idea of
forming a Biblical Library, containing copies of every
existing version of the Holy Scriptures, so that the Society
might never be at a loss for a standard translation or the
means of collation, should occasion arise for printing an
edition on its own account. Instructions were given that
copies of every translation, and of each edition printed
under its auspices, should be sent to the Library, and the
public were invited to assist in forming the collection. The
first contribution cafne from Granville Sharp, who presented
the Gothic New Testament translated by Bishop Ulfilas
(A.D. 360), Bibles, Testaments, and Gospels, in twenty-six
different tongues, an Arabic Psalter, and versions of the
English Liturgy in Erse and Spanish. A generous response
was made by other friends of the Society, so that at the
end of the half century the Library contained about 5000
volumes of printed books and MSS., by far the greater
part of which had been presented. There were versions of
the Holy Scriptures in more than one hundred and fifty
languages.1

1 An Historical Catalogue of the Biblical portion of the Library is passing
through the press (1903).

i8i7] THE THREAT OF INVASION 27

Let it not be forgotten that to these peaceful transactions
there was a grim background of warfare. During the whole
of this year, and for eight months of 1805, Napoleon was
waiting for his "six hours' mastery of the Channel." It
was an anxious and excited time. People like Southey
might be "provoked at the folly of any man who could feel
a moment's fear for the country " ; but many doubted the
endurance of our wooden walls and hearts of oak, and went
to sleep half prepared to be aroused by tap of drum or glare
of beacon-fire. Farmers returned from market with lengths
of bunting, to be stitched by their girls and run up on their
church-tower at the first news of the landing of the French.
In at least one great house in Norfolk coaches were kept
ready to whirl the children and the women into the depths
of the Fen country, where Hereward had palisaded his
Camp of Refuge nearly seven and a half centuries before.
And there was some justification for troubled minds, for
had not Government issued " Regulations for the Preserva-
tion of good order, to be adopted in case of actual invasion ; "
had not arrangements been made for the safety of Queen
Charlotte and the royal princesses ; was there not an
armed escort ready with thirty wagons to hurry the treasure
of the Bank of England to the crypt of Worcester Cathedral ;
was there not a sentry beside the big gun on Edinburgh
Castle to start the beacons and church-bells in angry
summons from sea to sea?

But even as there is a cool spot in the heart of a flame,
so, in the midst of this clamour and conflagration, there was
a quiet and peaceful room, wherein a small body of Christian
men — not patriots the less because they thought first of the
Kingdom of Christ, and afterwards of the Kingdom of the
Islands — gazed in spirit beyond these manifestations of
a distracted world, and saw that the need of mankind
was not a balance of power, or any human panacea, but
the charter of that freedom wherewith Christ hath made us

28 THE SOCIETY FOUNDED [1804-

free, and of that brotherhood which gathers us at the feet
of the Father Everlasting.

The times were hard too ; Three per Cents, had fallen
to 54^ ; bread had risen till, in December 1804, it reached
is. 4^d. for the quartern loaf. The year closed intensely
cold, with such flights of sea-birds as "had not been known
since the memory of man " ; and in January snow lay ten feet
deep on the high ground between Oxford and Cheltenham.
But whatever pinching there may have been among the
poor, and notwithstanding the trepidation of the fearful, there
was an undaunted spirit abroad. One who was baptized in
1803 in Dereham church, where William Cowper had been
recently laid to rest, and who in after years did notable service
for the Society, has given a vivid description of these times.

" ' Love your country and beat the French, and then
never mind what happens,' was the cry of entire England.
Oh, those were the days of power, gallant days, bustling
days, worth the bravest days of chivalry at least ; tall
battalions of native warriors were marching through the land;
there was the glitter of the bayonet and the gleam of the
sabre ; the shrill squeak of the fife and the loud rattling of
the drum were heard in the streets of the country towns,
and the loyal shouts of the inhabitants greeted the soldiery
on their arrival, or cheered them at their departure. And
now let us leave the upland and descend to the sea-board ;
there is a sight for you upon the billow's ! A dozen men-
of-war are gliding majestically out of port, their long bunt-
ings streaming from the top-gallant masts, calling on the
skulking Frenchman to come forth from his bights and
bays ; — and what looms up yonder from the fog-bank in the
east? a gallant frigate towing behind her the long, low hull
of a crippled privateer, which but three short days ago had
left Dieppe to skim the sea, and whose crew of ferocious hearts
are now cursing their imprudence in an English hold."1

1 Borrow, Lavengro, chap. ii.

i8i7] THE SHADOW OF NAPOLEON 29

The tension was not relaxed till the joy-bells rang out
over the land the triumph of Trafalgar, with a single toll
knelling sternly through the music in memory of Nelson,
and the hosts of the Channel poured across the Rhine to
the capture of Vienna and the brilliant sunrise of Austerlitz.
Indeed, until the arrival of Napoleon at St Helena, ten
years later, the history of the Bible Society must be read
with the din and smoke of conflict ever present in one's
memory.

At this point one is impelled to anticipate. It would
be difficult to depict more briefly and more truly than
Borrow has done the fierce hostility, with its Viking
brag and disdain, which at that time the mass of Britons
felt towards France. In reality, however, it was a hatred
rather of Napoleon than of the French people, though
in action a distinction between the two could not well
be drawn. With the fall of the Emperor the bitter national
spirit began to subside, and towards that change the Bible
Society contributed not a little. In the nineteen years
that followed Waterloo some ,£76,000 contributed by the
people of England was spent by the Society in spreading
the Scriptures among the French. Twenty years later the
armies of England and France fought side by side in the
Crimea.

CHAPTER III

GLIMPSES OF THE EARLY MEN

Now that we have seen the Bible Society fairly started, it
appears desirable that we should obtain some personal
glimpses of the devoted men to whose hands, under divine
providence, its destinies were intrusted. Happily the most
illustrious of that goodly fellowship still live for us in the
brilliant pages of the well-known Essays in Ecclesiastical
Biography and Wilberforce and his Friends. Open the
books, and Clapham is once more a green and sunny
village of nightingales, and at the west end of the common
the enchanted light of long-ago shines upon the homes
of Henry Thornton and Charles Grant and William
Wilberforce ; and under one hospitable roof or other, or
in the shadow of the great trees, we may meet Granville
Sharp, James Stephen, Zachary Macaulay, father of a
more famous son, and perchance — if we are fortunate in
our choice of the year — Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from
the wooded hills of Highgate.

One picture, in clear colour, of pleasant evenings in
those far-away summers has been preserved for us : —

"The sheltered garden behind, with its arbeil-trees
and elms and Scotch firs, as it lay so still, with its close-
shaven lawn, looked gay on a May afternoon, when the
groups of young and old seated themselves under the
shade of the trees, or were scattered over the grounds.
Matrons of households were there, who had strolled in to
enjoy a social meeting ; and their children busied them-

30

1804-1817] THE CLAPHAM CIRCLE 31

selves in sports with a youthful glee, which was cheered,
not checked, by the presence of their elders. For neigh-
bourly hospitality and easy friendship were features of
that family life.

" Presently, streaming from adjoining villages or cross-
ing the common, appeared others, who, like Henry
Thornton, had spent an occupied day in town, and now
resorted to this well-known garden to gather up their
families and enjoy a pleasant hour. Hannah More is
there, with her sparkling talk, and the benevolent Patty,
the delight of young and old ; 1 and the long-faced, blue-
eyed Scotchman [Charles Grant], with his fixed, calm
look, unchanged as an aloe-tree, known as the Indian
Director, one of the kings of Leadenhall Street; and the
gentle Thane, Lord Teignmouth, whose easy talk flowed
on like a southern brook, with a sort of drowsy murmur ;
and Macaulay stands by, listening, silent, with hanging
eyebrows ; and Babington in blue coat, dropping weighty
words with husky voice ; and young listeners, starting into
life, would draw round the thoughtful host, and gather up
his words — the young Grants [afterwards Lord Glenelg,
and Sir Robert, Governor of Bombay], and young Stephen,
and Copley [Lord Lyndhurst], a very clever young
lawyer. . . .

"But while these things are talked of in the shade,
and the knot of wise men draw closer together, in darts
the member for Yorkshire [William Wilberforce] from
the green fields to the south, like a sunbeam into a shady
room, and the faces of the old brighten, and the children
clap their hands with joy. He joins the group of the
elders, catches up a thread of their talk, dashes off a bright

1 Most readers will have forgotten Cowper's playful "Lines" (6th March 1792)
written in Miss Patty More's album : —

" In vain to live from age to age

While modern bards endeavour,
I write my name in Patty's page,
And gain my point for ever."

32 GLIMPSES OF THE EARLY MEN tl8o4.

remark, pours a ray of happy illumination, and for a few
moments seems as wise, as thoughtful, and as constant
as themselves. But this dream will not last, and these
watchful young eyes know it. They remember that he
is as restless as they are, as fond of fun and movement.
So, on the first youthful challenge, away flies the volatile
statesman. A bunch of flowers, a ball, is thrown in sport,
and away dash, in joyous rivalry, the children and the
philanthropist. Law and statesmanship forgotten, he is
the gayest child of them all. . . .

"Or they vary their summer evenings by strolling
through the fresh green fields into the wilder shrubbery
which encloses Mr Wilberforce's demesne, Broomfield,
not like Battersea Rise, with trim parterres and close-
mown lawn, but unkempt — a picture of stray genius and
irregular thoughts. As they pass near the windows they
look out on the north, and admire the old elms that shade
the slopes to the stream ; the kindly host hears their voices,
and runs out with his welcome. So they are led into
that charmed circle, and find there the portly Dean
[Milner, of Carlisle] with his stentorian voice, and the
eager Stephen, Admiral Gambier and his wife, and the
good Bishop Porteus, who has come from Fulham to
see his old friends, the Mores." x

And who is this, in quaint wig and queue, that I see in
fancy following one of the tracks which traverse the furze-
sprinkled common? He is of medium height, and for
all his seventy years, he carries himself with a modest
dignity. His grave but kindly face is raised gently
upwards, as though gazing in a day-dream on something
which he is well pleased to look upon. It may be that
in his heart he hears one of the songs of Zion, which it
is still his joy to sing to his harp at the break of the new
day — that harp which he maintains is fashioned in

1 J. C. Colquhoun, Wilberforce, his Friends and Times, pp. 306-8.

i8i7] GRANVILLE SHARP 33

imitation of the son of Jesse's. In the sunny years gone
by he had a pretty gift for music — the little nephews and
nieces remember yet how he delighted them with pipe
and tabor ; and — oh, the good days of gaiety and youth !—
what summer twilights were those on the upper river,
when the barge floated past Richmond Hill and beyond
Pope's villa, and the three brothers played harp and flute
and hautboy, in accompaniment to the sweet voices of
their sisters. Mark this gentle visionary, for whom the
Scriptures are so full of promise and prophecy. Of the
men of his age he is one of the most notable ; to him the
world owes the charter of liberty expressed in the popular
phrase, " As soon as a slave sets his foot on English ground
he is free."

Granville Sharp was born at Durham on roth November
J735- "The grandson of an Archbishop of York, the son
of an Archdeacon of Northumberland, the brother of a
Prebendary of Durham, he was apprenticed to a linen-
draper of the name of Halsey, a Quaker, who kept his shop
on Tower Hill. When the Quaker died, the indentures
were transferred to a Presbyterian of the same craft. When
the Presbyterian retired, they were made over to an Irish
Papist. When the Papist quitted the trade, they passed to
a fourth master, whom the apprentice reports to have had
no religion at all. At one time a Socinian took up his
abode at the draper's, and assaulted the faith of the young
apprentice in the mysteries of the Trinity and the Atone-
ment. Then a Jew came to lodge there, and contested
with him the truth of Christianity itself. . . . He studied
Greek to wrestle with the Socinian, he acquired Hebrew to
refute the Israelite, he learned to love the Quaker, to be
kind to the Presbyterian, to pity the Atheist, and to endure
even the Roman Catholic."1 The story of those seven

1 Stephen, Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, on which I have freely drawn in
this chapter. See also Mr Morris's handy little volume, Fotmders and Presidents of the
Bible Society.

VOL. I, C

34 GLIMPSES OF THE EARLY MEN [I8o4.

years is typical of the whole life of the man. He next
obtained a clerkship in the Ordnance Office, and the
eighteen years that followed were marked by an activity
on behalf of right and for the redress of wrong as chivalrous
as it was laborious and intrepid. In 1765 he rescued a
negro who had been cruelly treated by his master and
turned into the streets to starve, procured medical aid for
him, watched over him till he was restored to health, and
got him a situation. Two years later the master claimed
his chattel, and brought an action against Sharp for illegal
detention. The Lord Chief- Justice, Mansfield, favoured
the claim ; other legal luminaries, and even Blackstone,
concurred. Thrown on his own resources, Granville Sharp
made the law his nightly study for the next two years, and
arrived at the firm conviction that chancellors and judges
were maintaining an interpretation repugnant to the spirit
of English jurisprudence. The reward of his untiring energy
and self-sacrifice came to him in 1772, when James
Somerset, an escaped slave, applied to him for help. He
determined to make this a test case ; he engaged counsel
and supplied the arguments, but kept himself in the back-
ground lest his name should prejudice the cause. "For
the vindication of the freedom of that man there followed
a debate ever memorable in legal history for the ability
with which it was conducted, . . . for the reluctant abandon-
ment by Lord Mansfield of a long-cherished judicial error,
and for the recognition of a rule of law of such importance,
as almost to justify the poets and rhetoricians in their
subsequent embellishments of it ; but above all memorable
for the magnanimity of the prosecutor, who, though poor
and dependent and immersed in the duties of a toilsome
calling, supplied the money, the leisure, perseverance, and
the learning required for this great controversy, and who,
mean as was his education, and humble as were his
pursuits, had proved his superiority as a jurist, on one

I8,7] HENRY THORNTON 35

main branch of the law of England, to some of the most
illustrious judges by whom the law had been administered."

This was clearly a man to whom half measures were
intolerable. When orders reached his office for munitions
of war to be sent out against the revolted American
colonies, he resigned his post and his means of livelihood
rather than take even a clerk's share in an act of injustice
and tyranny. Afterwards, with the help of Government,
he founded the settlement of Sierra Leone for the benefit
of the slaves set free by the Somerset judgment, and
when the anti-slave traffic crusade began in the House of
Commons, he and James Stephen, who knew the West
Indies, and Zachary Macaulay, who had witnessed the
horrors of an Atlantic voyage on board a slaver, became
Wilberforce's most efficient coadjutors.

Such, in his wig and queue, with his gentle face gazing
upwards at something pleasant to look on, is the first
Chairman of the Bible Society.

And the first Treasurer, Henry Thornton, appears as
vividly before us, with his powdered hair and his blue
coat with metal buttons. Not a handsome man, but one
to arrest attention ; a strong Saxon face, with serene and
capacious brows, blue eyes full and scrutinising, lips
slightly parted, "as of one who listens and prepares to
speak," and a resolute chin.

The third son of John Thornton, a merchant prince
in the Russian trade and a philanthropist of more than
princely munificence, Henry became a banker, and in
1783 was returned to Parliament for Southwark, which he
represented for thirty-two years. Shrewd and careful in
business, he was unbounded in his benevolence. In his
earlier years he assigned to the poor six-sevenths of his
income ; later, when he incurred the responsibilities of a
family, he reduced his charity to one-third of his entire
expenditure. The smallest ^annual sum ever spent in his

36 GLIMPSES OF THE EARLY MEN [l8o4-

benefactions amounted to ^2000. He seconded his beloved
Wilberforce in his prolonged struggle with the slave trade,
took a leading part in founding the Sierra Leone settle-
ment, became chairman of the board when a company
was formed to promote its safety and prosperity, cheered
and counselled with an untiring pen Zachary Macaulay,
who had been appointed Governor on his suggestion ; sent
out fresh supplies when the colony was half ruined by war,
disease, and disaffection, and finally negotiated its transfer
to the management of the Crown. In addition to his other
activities he was an industrious writer, but the book by
which he will best be remembered, and which even to
this* day is not unknown in many Christian households, is
his Family Prayers.

And this "diminutive and shapeless figure," with "limbs
scarcely stouter than those of Asmodeus," which yet bears
itself with the gallantry and gracious courtesy of a preux
chevalier? This is William Wilberforce, the brilliant and
fascinating companion of the charming women and the
men of power and wit and genius of his epoch, the
advocate and champion of every great project of Christian
philanthropy, the generous benefactor of the poor, the
friend of the good in every sect and communion. "God
has set before me two great objects," he wrote twenty
years before, "the suppression of the slave-trade and the
reformation of manners " ; and experience has taught him
the value of combining against any evil, or for the promotion
of any good, the scattered sympathies of all religious
classes in one irresistible phalanx.

Observe the distinction between Granville Sharp's object
and that of Wilberforce. Sharp's was the abolition of
slavery ; that of Wilberforce the abolition of the traffic.
The former struck at the root of that evil tree "whose
roots go down to hell " ; but the Somerset judgment did not
affect the colonies, and hundreds of slave ships, "redolent

i8i;] WILLIAM WILBERFORCE 37

of frankincense " according to the traders, passed yearly
between the African coast and the New World. In 1789
Wilberforce delivered his first great abolition speech in
Parliament — "one of the ablest and most eloquent ever
heard in that or any other place " thought Bishop Porteus.
Sustaining defeat after defeat, but constantly winning over
and consolidating public opinion, he was in the midst of the
conflict when the Bible Society was founded ; in this year
(1805) there is but a majority of seven votes against the
Bill ; in 1807 he will be able to thank a gracious Providence
with his whole heart for the realisation of "the great object
of his life " ; but in the abolition of slavery itself he will
find a new enterprise to engage his powers, and, in the
end, to intrust to younger hands.

Wilberforce was born in 1759 at Hull, where as a
sickly child he attended a school kept by the Rev. Joseph
Milner, the Church historian, assisted by his young
brother Isaac, who afterwards rose to high academical
distinction, and became the portly Dean with the stentorian
voice, of whom we have already caught a glimpse in the
green shades of Clapham. Even as a lad his soul revolted
against the barbarities of the negro traffic, though that
indeed might have been expected from a generous and
sensitive temperament. At an early age he came into a
large fortune ; within six weeks of his attaining his
majority he entered public life as member for Hull, and
four years later he was returned for Yorkshire. It was in
1785, when he was in his twenty-sixth year, that the Divine
Light guided him into the new way in which he was to
serve mankind.

"Wilberforce told me much of his history in a delight-
ful tete-a-tete conversation," writes Joseph John Gurney.1
"Amongst other things he told me that he had travelled
to Nice with Milner, Dean of Carlisle : the two friends

1 Hare, The Gurneys of Earlham, vol. ii. p. 52

38 GLIMPSES OF THE EARLY MEN

read the whole of the New Testament together on that
journey, and the single perusal was so blessed to Wilber-
force that he became a new man. He renounced the world,
and devoted himself to the fear and service of Almighty
God. When he arrived at Nice, he found in the chamber
of his sick relative a copy of Doddridge's Rise and Progress
of Religion in the Soul. He read it with eagerness, and it
was the means of confirming and completing his change."
He sought the advice of John Newton, who by this
time had left Olney for St Mary Woolnoth, and that ex-
perienced counsellor made it clear that his duty lay in the
advancement of his Master's cause in the position in which
he had been placed.

And here, notable even among men so variously gifted,
are two — Charles Grant and Lord Teign mouth — who, for
the future Oriental work of the Bible Society, appear to
have been most providentially brought together from the
ends of the earth.

In March 1746, a few weeks before the clans were
scattered on Culloden Moor and his own father had fallen
severely wounded, Charles Grant was born at Aldourie
Farm on the shore^ of Loch Ness. At the age of two-and-
twenty he landed in India, where he saw and helped to
relieve that terrible famine which swept away four millions
in Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. In 1773 he entered the
East India Company's service, in which he rose rapidly,
and after his retirement he thrice occupied the high
position of chairman of its Court of Directors, — "was
regarded indeed as the real ruler of the rulers of the
East." "At Leadenhall Street he was celebrated for an
integrity exercised by the severest trials ; for an understand-
ing large enough to embrace, without confusion, the entire
range and the intricate combinations of their civil and
military policy ; and for nerves which set fatigue at
defiance." Convinced that the greatest blessing England

i8,7] LORD TEIGNMOUTH 39

could bestow upon the East was the "knowledge of our
religion," he formed at Calcutta a scheme for a Bengal
Mission, which, though it failed in its object, led indirectly
to the establishment of the Church Missionary Society ;
it was on his suggestion that Carey, "the obscure Baptist
cobbler," took up his station at Serampore ; in 1793 he
induced Wilberforce to move Parliament for facilities for
the evangelising of India ; but the East India Company
took alarm, the Mission clauses were struck out of their
Charter Bill, and — to use the words of Wilberforce — "our
territories in Hindostan, twenty millions of people included,
were committed to the protection of — Brama." In 1802
his entrance into Parliament enabled him to further the
great projects he had at heart. To-day one of his dreams
is a new college for the India Service ; in a little while
it will be known as Haileybury, and it will number
among its famous sons men of the type of John Lawrence
and Charles Trevelyan.

Of this goodly fellowship at Clapham most interesting
to us is "the gentle Thane," Lord Teignmouth, who for
thirty years presided over the deliberations of the Bible
Society.

He came of the old stock of Derbyshire Shores, whose
memory lingers about the venerable and once moated Hall
of Snitterton, near Matlock, and the Shore trees, which
still stand on Oker Hill. These last, it is true, may have
been planted as a "fond memorial" of their parting by
the Two Brothers of Wordsworth's sonnet —

"'Tis said that to the brow of yon fair hill ;"

but according to another tradition, they represent one
William Shore and his wife, looking down on Wensley and
Darley and the goodly lands which, as far as they could
see, belonged to their forefathers. John Shore purchased
the manor of Snitterton early in the reign of Elizabeth ; in

40 GLIMPSES OF THE EARLY MEN [l8o4-

recognition of the loyal services of the family, his grandson
John, a physician of Derby, was knighted by Charles II.
soon after the Restoration ; Sir John's grandson, Thomas,
inherited the lucrative position of supercargo to the East
India Company, and the eldest son of Thomas was John
Shore, who became Lord Teignmouth.

The lad entered the Company's service at an early age.
Applying himself on his arrival in India to the mastery
of Bengali, Hindustani, Arabic, and Persian, he was
quickly advanced from the office of assistant-supervisor at
Moorshedabad to a position on the Council of Revenue
at Calcutta. Here he began a friendship with Warren
Hastings, in whose company, in 1785, he returned to
England. He was next appointed by the Court of
Directors to the Supreme Council of three, created under
Mr Pitt's India Bill, and on the voyage out contracted
a lasting friendship with Lord Cornwallis, the new
Governor-General. Three years were spent in effecting
many financial and judicial reforms, and in 1789 he again
returned home. In 1792 he was created a baronet, and
once more sailed for India, to assume the power and
responsibilities of Gpvernor-General in the following year.
An entry in his journal indicates the spirit in which he
entered on his task of empire :

" Grant, I beseech Thee, that I may on all occasions regulate my
conduct by the rules and precepts of Thy Word ; and that in all doubts,
dangers, and embarrassments, I may always have grace to apply to Thee for
support and assistance. Grant that under my government, religion and
morality may be advanced."

His sincerest admirers agree in regarding his natural
powers as unequal to the burthen laid upon them in these
eventful years. Still his administration was not unworthy
of his Christian profession, and the judgment of Sir James
Stephen seems, in its frank impartiality, to be less a
disparagement of the character and capacity of the Governor-

i8i7] HIS CAREER IN INDIA 41

General than an ironical appreciation of the Gospel of the
Sword: — "Empire cannot be built up, either in the West
or in the East, in contempt of the laws of God, and then
be maintained according to the Decalogue. . . . Sir John
Shore was the St Louis of Governor-Generals. But if
Clive had been like-minded, we should have had no India
to govern. If Hastings had aspired to the title of ' The
Just,' we should not have retained our dominion. If
Wellesley had ruled in the spirit of his conscientious
predecessor we should infallibly have lost it."

The calm determination and unswerving courage of the
course Sir John Shore took during the crisis in the
Kingdom of Oude, when, at the risk of assassination, and
yet without the firing of a shot, he deposed and banished
the Pretender, Vizier Ali, and enthroned the brother of
the deceased Nawab, were the qualities of no ordinary
man, and well merited the opinion of the Court of
Directors, "that the Governor-General, in a most arduous
situation, conducted himself with great temper, ability, and
firmness, so that he finished a long career of faithful service
by carrying into execution an arrangement which redounds
highly to his honour."

At Lucknow he received the news of his successor's
appointment, and of his own elevation to the peerage,
and on the yth March 1798 he embarked for England.

His life and his fortunes up to this point may, in the
dispensation of Providence, have been but a preparation
for the duties which were the delight of his mature years.
"So high a trust could not have fallen into hands more
curiously fitted for the discharge of it. There met and
blended in him as much of the spirit of the world
and as much of the spirit of that sacred volume
as could combine harmoniously with each other. To the
capacious views of a man long conversant with great
affairs, he united a submission the most childlike to the

42 GLIMPSES OF THE EARLY MEN [^04-

supreme authority of those sacred records. To the high
bearing of one for whose smile rival princes had sued,
he added the unostentatious simplicity which is equally
beyond the reach of those who solicit, and of those who
really despise, human admiration. . . . An Oriental scholar
of no mean celebrity, and not without a cultivated taste for
classical learning, he daily passed from such pursuits to
the study of the sacred oracles — as one who, having
sojourned in a strange land, returns to the familiar voices,
the faithful counsels, and the well-proved loving-kindness
of his father's house. To scatter through every tongue
and kindred of the earth the inspired leaves by which
his own mind was sustained and comforted was a labour
in which he found full scope and constant exercise for
virtues, hardly to be hazarded in the government of
India."1

In the lapse of years a dimness has fallen on the
personality of those other worthies, who, if socially less
brilliant, were not less distinguished for the part they
took in the work of the Society.

The Rev. Joseph Hughes was born at Holborn on ist
January 1769, took his degree at Aberdeen, where he
formed the first Sunday school in the district, and was
for some time Professor at the Baptist College at Bristol.
In those days one of his pupils — only a year and a half
younger than himself — was John Foster, in whose letters
we get some conception of the man ; and among his friends
were Jay of Bath and Hannah More, and Coleridge, whom
he met at Joseph Cottle's. After his marriage to Miss
Hester Rolph of Thornbury, he became assistant minister
at Broadmead, and finally, in 1787, was appointed to the
charge of the congregation of Battersea, where he was
received into friendly intercourse by the Evangelical circle
at Clapham. He was present at the meeting at which the

1 Stephen, Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, p. 566.

i8i7] THE REV. C. F. STEINKOPFF 43

formation of the Religious Tract Society was suggested
by the Rev. George Burder, offered the first prayer when
it was started on gth May 1799, was its first secretary,
and discharged that office, together with the duties of
Secretary to the Bible Society, to the last day of his life.
In travelling, speaking, and preaching he was indefati-
gable, and his services were given without a thought of
private benefit or self-seeking, for, though in later years
he was constrained to accept remuneration from the Bible
Society, the whole was devoted to works of mercy.

Dr Steinkopff was born on the 7th September 1773, at
Ludwigsburg, among the hills of the Waiblingen region —
a second capital of Wurtemberg, due to the folly of Duke
Eberhard Ludwig, by that time forgotten, but alive naughtily
enough less than fifty years before. He was educated at
Stuttgart, and in 1790 joined the Evangelical Theological
Seminary at Tubingen, where he entered on his career as
a minister of the Gospel. Five years later he was appointed
secretary to the Christian Society of Basel, at that time a
centre of manifold religious agencies. He was next chosen
pastor to the German Lutheran church in the Savoy,
London, and began his ministry there in November 1801.
He was then eight-and-twenty ; handsome, winning,
eloquent, and eager to enter into the furtherance of every
religious enterprise. We soon find him aiding the Church
Missionary Society to find German missionaries, and par-
ticipating in the discussions of the Religious Tract Society,
in whose foreign transactions he took an active interest.
Not least of the innumerable services he rendered to the
Bible Society was that speech of his on its foundation
day, which the Rev. John Owen — very suspicious of
Quakers, very chary of committing himself to chimerical
schemes — listened to with growing emotion ; which at last
brought him to his feet on the spur of "an impulse which he
had neither the inclination nor the power to disobey."

44 GLIMPSES OF THE EARLY MEN [l8o4.

Dimmest of all these figures is the Rev. John Owen,
Curate and Lecturer of Fulham, Chaplain to the Bishop
of London, Church of England Secretary to the Bible
Society, and its first historian. A man of no little personal
dignity, one conceives him ; not free from prejudices, but
eager to be just ; quick in temper, yet even more quickly
moved to a sympathetic tenderness. He appears as expressly
designed for his office as was Lord Teignmouth for the
presidential chair. He was perhaps the one man in
London who could introduce the Society with acceptance
to Bishop Porteus, and so accomplish that decided con-
nection with the Established Church which was a condition
essential to the prosperity of the project. He himself
acknowledges, with the winning frankness which charac-
terises him, the generous forbearance and the liberal policy
which, from the first, favoured the pre-eminence of the
Established Church ; and no proof more striking could
be instanced of the staunch fidelity of the other denomina-
tions than the fact that Mr Owen could use the following
retort without fear of misinterpretation or of resentment :

"They who think to discredit the Institution by charging
it with a Dissenting, origin may be reminded that, whatever
may have been the case with respect to its rudiments, a
member of the Established Church presided at the formation
of the Society, and a minister of that Church moved the
resolutions by which it was formed."

Born in 1766 in Old Street — the oldest of London
streets, an aboriginal track indeed through forest and
marsh before London was — Owen had been educated at
St Paul's, and had had a career of some distinction at
Cambridge. He travelled as tutor on the Continent in the
early nineties; arrived at Lyons in those "red fool fury"
days, in which the city was ransacked to find a Bible to tie
to an ass's tail for some sacrilegious revel ; got away, safe
and scared, with his "young gentleman" to Switzerland;

i8i7] THE REV. JOHN OWEN 45

and returning home, set to work, after his ordination and
marriage in 1794, on The Retrospect, or Reflections on the State of
Religion and Politics in France and Great Britain, two volumes
of Travels in Different Parts of Europe, The Christian Monitor
of the Last Days, to take no account of sermons. In 1795
Bishop Porteus appointed him to the curacy of Fulham,
where he lived for seventeen years, and in 1808 installed him
Rector of Paglesham in Essex. He published The Fashion-
able World Displayed, "by Theophilus Christian, Esq."-
which reached a second edition in 1805, and a copy of which,
even at this date, comes occasionally to the surface in the
second-hand catalogues. A fervid, indefatigable man, with
a pen almost too fluent ; only thirty-eight when the Society
was founded; "a remarkable man," Dr Paterson thought
long afterwards, "the prince of platform speakers; a warm
and steady friend." One of his daughters married Wilber-
force's eldest son ; other personal matters have faded out
of remembrance.

To this small group of the early men ought to be
added other figures, for many besides these contributed to
make the Society what it became. Pass, honoured names,
— Hardcastle and Reyner and Tarn, Mills and Alers and
Sundius, Townsend and Pellatt, whose work was not done
for glory or for reward ; and thou, too, with the rest, great
but humble shade of Josiah Pratt, whose seal is impressed
on the constitution of the Committee to this hour !

CHAPTER IV

THE SECRET OF THE SOCIETY'S SUCCESS (l.)

IF in the establishment of the Bible Society we have
evidence of divine direction prompting the acts and shap-
ing the counsels of men, it seems to us that during the
early years of its operations the same spiritual influence may
be even more clearly discerned in the undreamed-of develop-
ments which have now to be recorded.

It was not to resourceful prevision, to ingenious and
effective organisation, to eloquent advocacy on the part of
its founders, that the marvellous growth of the institution
was due. These were not wanting, and, however sub-
ordinate, were indeed essential. With speech and pen,
ever prudent, conciliatory, and single-hearted, the Secretaries
were indefatigable. As we shall see, they travelled far and
often, and their labours were lifelong. Their sole end was
to ascertain the needs of every town and village and upland
cottage, and to supply them ; the obvious means to that
end was to proclaim throughout the length and breadth of
the land the existence and the purposes of the Society, and
to obtain patronage and financial support. How far, by
these means alone and unaided by the unforeseen expansions
of public piety, they would have realised their object, it
would be rash to determine, but, humanly speaking, there
can be little doubt that the subscriptions, donations, legacies
and collections, on which Mr Wilberforce was probably
reckoning when he estimated the extreme limit of the
Society's income at ;£ 10,000 a year, would never have

46

1804-1817] UNFORESEEN DEVELOPMENTS 47

produced the large revenue which has enabled it to prosecute
its sacred mission throughout the four quarters of the world.

At the beginning both the collections and the annual
subscriptions were remarkable for their liberality, and,
indeed, they have been throughout most generous and
helpful ; but the yearly increase in the latter was slow ; and
in regard to the collections, although, as in Glasgow
especially, attempts were made to convert them into per-
manent sources of income, there was necessarily an element
of uncertainty that would always have checked the energies
of the Committee, and chilled the spirit of faith and confidence
to which we must ascribe the promptitude and splendid
boldness of so many of their undertakings. Still more
uncertain in character were the donations and legacies.

But if the Committee and the Secretaries were denied the
prevision and initiation in regard to this new development
which was to give the institution absolute stability and a
range of usefulness beyond all preconception, they instantly
perceived its value and urged its extension.1 In fact the
principle which, by a happy inspiration, they had adopted
for the Continent, contained unrecognised the germ of the
Auxiliary Societies, and prepared the way for their general
acceptance. As a rule, institutions insist on centralisation ;
it is the law of egotism in the State as in the individual :
the success of the Bible Society was to be dependent on
the utmost decentralisation possible.

The first indication of the new movement was the
establishment in London, in July 1805, of "an associa-
tion for the purpose of contributing to the fund of

1 Mr Owen distinctly states that the earliest Auxiliaries "appear to have risen
altogether from local and insulated exertion ; they were not, at least, indebted for
their production, so far as the author has been able to learn, to any efforts or com-
munications issuing from the conductors of the parent Society." The Kendal,
Leicester, and Hull Auxiliaries, founded in 1810, were "substantially of the same
description. ..." "But in the formation of those at Manchester, Bristol, and
Sheffield," he goes on to remark, "there were circumstances, which, through all
their stages, from their origin to their completion, connected them with the officers of
the parent Society " — and especially with the Church Secretary himself.

48 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-

the British and Foreign Bible Society," based on the
consideration that " many persons who on account of
their subscriptions to other societies, or on account of
the narrowness of their means, would not be justified
in becoming direct members of the Society, would yet be
desirous of contributing somewhat proportioned to their
ability." Members began with a donation of not less
than 2s., and not more than 75., and subscribed monthly
not less than 6d. and not more than is. Each member
in turn was to collect for a year from eight members,
including himself, and to deliver the subscriptions quarterly
to the treasurer, who was to transmit the aggregate to the
Bible Society every February.

In April 1806 the Birmingham Association was formed
on a plan which in one respect approached more closely
to the conception of the future Auxiliary. The town was
divided into twelve districts, and collectors were appointed
for each. The ministers of the various denominations were
requested to adopt such measures with their congregations
as would best conduce to general co-operation ; the pro-
moters, the clergy, and the magistrates were appointed a
committee to transmit the subscriptions and donations to
the Bible Society "as the united contribution of the
different denominations of Christians in the town of
Birmingham, together with a list of names of such subscribers
who may be entitled to be supplied with books at the Society's
prices."

The efforts of both these Associations were heartily
appreciated, and their example was strongly commended
for imitation ; but it was not till 1809 that the regular
Auxiliary Bible Society took form. Reading led the way
on the 28th March, and two days later the Nottingham
Auxiliary was established.1

1 The Greenock and Port Glasgow Bible Society was formed in 1807 for the
purpose " of circulating the Holy Scriptures in places where they were most wanted.

i8i7] RULES FOR THE AUXILIARIES 49

The characteristic clause in the constitution of the
former was contained in the resolution, "that this society
adopt as far as possible the rules and regulations of the
parent Society." In the Nottingham organisation it was
provided that "one half of the amount of the funds of
the society shall be subscribed to the British and Foreign
Bible Society, and the remainder appropriated to the
discharge of the expenses of the society, and to purchase
Bibles and Testaments of the British and Foreign Bible
Society to be distributed for the benefit of this town and
neighbourhood." Broadly speaking, these conditions formed
the basis of all the Auxiliaries, which now began to spring
up in rapid succession, until in 1814 a set of rules, drawn
up by Mr Richard Phillips, a member of the Committee,
and Mr C. S. Dudley, sometime a member of the
Committee and afterwards one of the Society's agents, and
revised, sanctioned and published by the Society, intro-
duced a general uniformity, and rectified the inconveniences
which arose from irregularity and absence of system.1

Let us endeavour to realise the results involved in this
new development, on which so much stress has been
laid. Figures are generally supposed to be unpicturesque
and repellent, but figures alone can place in a vivid light
the marvellous change which was now being effected in
the power and the prospects of the Bible Society.

Consider the following table, which displays the revenue
derived from the four sources to which the Society owed
its efficiency from 1805 to 1809.

and of assisting other societies which have the same views " ; but as it was not
exclusively associated with the British and Foreign Bible Society, it stands apart from
the list of professed Auxiliaries.

1 These rules, which were revised but not materially altered in 1852, provided
for a close inquiry into the needs of the locality, which were to be supplied by sale at
prime cost or reduced prices, or gratuitously, according to circumstances. Subscrip-
tions and donations, after the deduction of incidental expenses, were to be remitted
to the parent Society on the understanding that the Auxiliary should be entitled to
receive Bibles and Testaments at prime cost to the value of half the entire amount
remitted.

VOL. I. D

50 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-

Annual
Subscriptions. Collections. Donations. Legacies. Auxiliaries. Totals.

,£8,580
5,363
5,519
5,835

^5,945

1805-6

,£1,510

,£5,943

,£1,127

...

1806-7

2,004

1,321

2,038

...

1807-8

2,493

1,467

1,359

,£200

1808-9

2,686

1,914

93°

305

1809-10

3,625

4,346

300

68

Note the significance of the Auxiliaries. The moment
they appear, the revenue which they produce is consider-
ably in excess of that derived from any other single source
of income during an unusually prosperous year. It exceeds
in itself the total revenue from all sources in each of the
three preceding years.

But even this effect, striking as it is, is but a faint
glimmer of the golden dawn which was breaking on the
prospects of the Society. In 1811-12 the income con-
tributed by the Auxiliaries was more than twice as large
as that from all the other sources together; in 1812-13
more than five times as large; in 1813-14 more than six
times; in 1814-15 more than seven times; in the following
year, when some distress was caused by the inrush of
disbanded troops, more than ten times.

The annexed table will make it clear how completely
the Society came to depend on its Auxiliaries for its
splendid activity and for the success of its daring enter-
prises during the thirteen years which we purpose to
treat as the first period of its history. Much blessed work
would no doubt have been accomplished on the smaller
revenue ; but would the eye of faith have ever been
privileged to trace those countless threads, invisible but
unquestionable, which shortly afterwards joined in spiritual
relationship thousands of Christians in English towns and
villages with Mohammedan and Jew ; with German and
Spaniard, with Russian and Italian, Swede and Greek ;
with Hindu and Negro and Red Indian ; with the Green-
lander in his kayak, the Kalmuk horseman on the scorching

IMPORTANCE OF THE AUXILIARIES 51

steppe, the Eskimo in his snowy hut, and the Tahitian
on his tropic isle?

Annual

Subscriptions. Collections. Donations. Legacies. Auxiliaries.

1810-11 ,£3,831 ,£2,335 £2,997 £383 £6,071

1811-12 4,077 1,098 4,150 304 24,813

1812-13

4,095

1,151

4,265

1,138

55,099

1813-14

3,109

959

2,651

925

53,403

1814-15

3,272

1,406

2,429

I,3f2

61,848

1815-16

3,058

811

1,248

378

55,450

1816-17

2,764

654

3,335

1,478

52,027

That the importance of this providential development
has not been exaggerated in regard either to its permanence
or its relative helpfulness may be most convincingly proved
by reference to the details of two more annual statements
taken, one from the middle of the century, and the other
from its closing year.

Annual
Subscriptions. Collections. Donations. Legacies. Auxiliaries.

1853-4 £l,970 £195 £4,057 £l5,78l £35,875

1900-1 2,574 915 11,290 37,163 64,701

Legacies paid through Auxiliaries, £9,645.

The vast increment in contributions was by no means
the sole advantage derived from the Auxiliaries. They co-
operated with the parent Society in the home distribution
of the Scriptures to an extent which in all probability
could never have been otherwise practicable. "It is
scarcely necessary," Mr Browne observes,1 "to say how
much better qualified they were, both to ascertain the
wants of the poor, and to apportion the degree of supply
in their several districts, than those could have been who
must have depended for their information in these matters
upon merely written and transmitted statements."

The Bristol Auxiliary, he points out as an illustration,
distributed locally 4210 Bibles and Testaments during the

1 Browne, History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, vol. i. p. 42.

52 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-

first year of its existence ; and the Manchester and
Salford Auxiliary as many as 7034. An isolated instance,
however, is but a straw which shows the direction in which
the wind blows ; it will not assist us in ascertaining its
dynamic pressure. Let us turn for fuller information to
the records of sales.

The sale-figures themselves, it must be premised, require
to be handled with circumspection. One is apt to associate
them with revenue, but in reality they represent only so
much segregated capital, which, after undergoing various
protean changes, returns annually more or less sensibly
diminished. Unlike most business transactions, the sales of
the Bible Society frequently involve considerable loss, and
almost invariably result in no commercial profit. Apart from
the fluctuating element of "reduced prices" necessitated
by the circumstances of the poor and indigent, it is only
necessary to bear in mind the arrangement which applied
to the members of the Society and to the Auxiliaries and
their Branches, to understand the exceptional condition
which differentiates these sales from those of other establish-
ments. "Every annual subscriber will be allowed to
purchase within the year Bibles and Testaments to the
amount of five guineas for every guinea subscribed, at a
deduction of 20 per cent, from the prime cost."

The following statement of the sales which took place to
the close of the year 1813-14 is singularly suggestive : —

1804-5 . . £

1805-6 . . 122

1 806-7 . . 889

1807-8 . . 3,793

1808-9 . . 4,959

1809-10 . . .£6,428

1810-11 . . 8,433

1811-12 . . 6,903

1812-13 • • 9,525

1813-14 . . 24,766

The efficacy of the Auxiliaries in stimulating the circula-
tion of the Holy Scriptures is saliently demonstrated by
the fact that, while in the first five years the sales amounted
to .£9763 and the number of copies distributed was 158,429,

i8i7] THE BIBLE ASSOCIATIONS 53

the sales in the second five years, during which the
Auxiliaries arose, increased to ,£56,055, and the number
of copies distributed was 828,658. And projecting our
view into the future, we find the evidence confirmed by the
returns for 1854, when, it appears, the total sales amounted
to ,£65,358, which included ,£43,790 derived from the sales
to the Auxiliaries.

While, however, this is undoubtedly the case, the
sudden leap in the amount of sales from .£9,525 in 1812-13
to .£24,766 in 1813-14 seems to call for explanation, and
that the more especially when we observe that the sale-
figures in these and the succeeding years bear no deter-
minable relationship to the revenue derived from the
Auxiliaries.

Contributions
from Auxiliaries. Sales.

1812-13 . . £55>°99 • . £9,524

1813-14 . . 53>4oo 24,766

1814-15 . . 61,848 . . 27,560

1815-16 . . 55,450 . . 29,927

1816-17 .. . 52,027 . . 21,954

The explanation is contained in the fact that at this
point we come in touch with those extraordinary out-
growths of the Auxiliaries — the Bible Associations, which,
springing up from time to time, had now by their number
and the excellence of their organisation begun to exercise
a notable influence in the economy of the Society. It is
a curious circumstance that during the deliberations of the
founders in 1803, the Rev. Mr Williams of Birmingham
suggested the formation of local associations, to which the
poor might pay for Bibles in penny weekly instalments,
and through the aid of which the prices might be further
reduced ; but consideration of the proposal was post-
poned until the formation of the Society should have been
accomplished. In 1811 the system in vogue among the
Auxiliaries for the circulation of the Divine Word was

54 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [l8o4-

investigated by Mr Phillips, who was speedily impressed
by the insufficiency of the existing means both for ascertain-
ing the requirements of the great mass of the population,
and for providing an adequate supply. Little if any idea
was entertained of ascertaining with correctness the proper
objects of relief, or of stimulating the humbler classes to
aid themselves and to co-operate according to their means
in the promotion of the general cause ; nor was it generally
understood that sale, at however reduced a price, was in-
variably to be preferred to gratuitous donation.

"Mr Phillips conceived it possible to interest the poor
themselves ; to create a desire for that sacred treasure which
so many thousands of them had never possessed ; and to
liberate the funds of the Auxiliary Societies for the general
object, while the home supply should be more effectually
secured," and that too in a manner calculated to enhance
its value.1

He drew up a code of rules, which was recommended
for general adoption by the Committee. The rules pro-
vided that members should subscribe not less than a penny
weekly ; that the neighbourhood should be divided into
districts, and a sub-committee appointed to each district to
solicit subscriptions ; that the sub-committee should inquire
into the needs of each district and supply them at prime
cost, reduced prices or gratis, according to circumstances ;
that the Association should be so affiliated to an Auxiliary
or one of its Branches that the funds might be expended
for the supply of the districts in the purchase at prime
cost of Bibles and Testaments from the depository of
that particular Auxiliary or Branch ; and finally that any
residue from the funds should be remitted to the Auxiliary
or Branch in aid of the parent Society.2 Thus the Associa-

1 Dudley, An Analysis of the System of the Bible Society, p. 210.

2 In some instances a stock of Bibles to be granted on loan was adopted, thus
obviating in a great measure the need for free gifts. The loss on the books sold by
the Auxiliaries at reduced prices to the poor was made good out of the Bibles and

i8i7] GROWTH OF THE ASSOCIATIONS 55

tions became to the Auxiliaries and their Branches what
these were themselves to the Bible Society.

The first regular Bible Association was founded at
High Wycombe in November 1811, before the general
promulgation of these rules.1 How far it was indebted
to suggestions from Mr Phillips is not discoverable, but
both in spirit and in system it seems to have conformed
to the principles he laid down. It not only afforded a
prospect of considerably aiding the funds of the Wycombe
Auxiliary by providing the locality with Bibles, but the
subscribers insisted on giving more than two-thirds of
their subscriptions, "in order that they might do some-
thing towards carrying the Sacred Volume into countries
destitute of the Holy Scriptures."

The Darlington and Suffolk Auxiliaries adopted the
authorised code in 1812, and in August of the same year
ten Associations were at work in the district of the Black-
heath Auxiliary. The Tyndale Ward Auxiliary reported that
twenty-four Associations in a population of 29,605 among
the moors of Northumberland were gathering subscriptions
and donations at the rate of ^1603 per annum. " If every
part of Great Britain," it was remarked, "contributed in
the same proportion, from 16,000,000 of people about
^865,000 would be annually raised."

Testaments returned for a moiety of their contribution, or otherwise furnished at cost
price. These rules, and the regulations for the Juvenile, Ladies', Marine, and other
organisations, were revised with the code for the Auxiliaries in 1852, but not
materially changed.

1 In 1804, quite unware of the existence of the Bible Society, Catherine Elliott,
a girl of fifteen, started in Sheffield among her schoolfellows a Juvenile Bible Society
for the benefit of the poor ; during the first sixteen years of its existence 2,500 volumes
of the Scriptures were distributed, and it held on its independent course even
after the formation of the Sheffield Auxiliary, to which it paid over its funds in
exchange for Bibles and Testaments to the full amount at cost price. As it was
based, however, on the idea of gratuitous distribution, which experience has con-
clusively proved to be undesirable, it cannot be regarded as an " Association." The
Aberdeen Female Servants' Society for promoting the diffusion of the Scriptures was
formed in 1809, but its primary object was not local, and it was not till some time
later that the weekly penny was fixed as the subscription. In these respects the
Female Bible Association founded at Paisley in 1811 came nearer to the ideal
•' Association."

56 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS tl8o4-

It is, however, in the twelve Associations of the
Southwark Auxiliary, with 650 agents working among a
population of 150,000, that the power and potency of the
system are most brilliantly illustrated. In three years
these twelve Associations raised ,£4685, and distributed
9,328 Bibles and 4209 Testaments. In eleven and a half
years their aggregate collections, after deduction of expenses,
amounted to ,£12,589, and they distributed 20,085 Bibles
and 8,393 Testaments. And now mark the dominant part
played by these Associations in the finances of the Auxiliary.
The total amount received by the Southwark Auxiliary
during this period was ,£18,786, and of this sum no less
than ^"12,589 was contributed by the Associations. The
total number of Bibles and Testaments issued from the
depository was 31,722 copies, of which 28,478, as already
mentioned, went to the Associations, 2,917 were sold to
subscribers at reduced prices, and 327 were voted gratuit-
ously to prisons, hospitals, etc. ; and the sum transmitted
to the parent Society was ;£ 16,887. It is therefore evident
that of this last figure the Auxiliary could have contributed
only ,£6,197, a°d that the Associations, after defraying
the cost of the entire issue from the depository, provided
the balance of ,£10,690.

Such then were the Bible Associations which gave the
Auxiliaries the completeness and plenitude of efficacy
required by the condition of the country. They increased
rapidly, and prospered in proportion to the energy and
zeal of their agents. Within eight years there were over
a thousand, and as early as 1815 it was pointed out that
"several of the Associations now produce a sum more than
is necessary to supply the deficiency of the Scriptures
among the poor of their district, thereby completely
liberating, for the supply of foreign parts, the funds of the
Auxiliary Bible Societies with which they are connected."1

1 Eleventh Report, note, p. 500.

I8i7] "A TAX ON THE POOR" 57

Truly a memorable and perhaps a unique instance of
the end providing the means, rather than of the means
accomplishing the end.

Naturally criticism was not lacking. The Associations
were decried as a tax on the poor, but in an essay, lofty in
tone and full of practical sense, Dr Chalmers swept aside
the objections of these "friends of the poor, to whom, while
they were sitting in judgment on their circumstances and
feelings, it did not occur how unjustly and how unworthily
they thought of them." And he proceeds:—

" Let it now be remembered that the institution of a Bible Society gives
you the whole benefit of such a tax without its odiousness. . . . The single
circumstance of its being a voluntary act forms the defence and the answer
to all the clamours of an affected sympathy. You take from the poor. No :
they give. You take beyond their ability. Of this they are the best judges.
You abridge their comforts. No, there is a comfort in the exercise of
charity ; there is a comfort in the act of lending a hand to a noble enter-
prise ; there is a comfort in the contemplation of its progress ; there is a
comfort in rendering a service to a friend ; and when that friend is the
Saviour, and that service the circulation of the message He left behind Him,
it is a comfort which many of the poor are ambitious to share in." 1

Many other explanatory papers and appeals were also
circulated throughout the kingdom, and these attacks
ultimately contributed to the success of the movement.
Similar objections were raised, on other grounds, to the
Juvenile Associations, and to the Female Bible Societies.
With regard to the former the reply was as simple as it was
effectual: "And when the chief priests and scribes saw
the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying
in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David,
they were sore displeased, and said unto Him, Hearest
thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea;
have ye never read, Out of the mouths of babes and
sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" The claims of

1 Chalmers, On the Influence of Bible Societies on the Temporal Necessities of the
Poor.

58 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [l8o4-

domesticity, propriety, and decorum were urged against
"the Christian fair" taking an active part in the work
of disseminating the Scriptures among the poor. Could
ladies devote the requisite portion of their time, it was
asked, to these labours without neglecting their domestic
duties, relaxing in their attention to other benevolent
establishments, or forfeiting some portion of that delicacy
which is the peculiar ornament of the female character?
And grim stress was laid upon the indecorum of young
women entering alone into the cottages of the poor, when
their feelings might be hurt by improper language, or
their delicacy wounded by witnessing unpleasant scenes.1
Strangely enough, doubts of this description had entered
the minds of "some of the most active and intelligent
friends of the Society," and even Mr Owen himself, while
"decidedly friendly to the admission of females into the
participation of the labours and the triumphs of the
Society," was anxious that they should be employed in
a manner "comporting with that delicacy which has ever
been considered as characteristic of the sex, and which
constitutes one of its best ornaments and its strongest
securities."1 Those who believed that "the sickly refine-
ment, fastidious delicacy, and helpless dependence of
females, which was the idol of former years, had been
exploded by the better taste and sense of the present
age," referred to the Maries and Priscillas, the Tryphenas
and Tryphosas of early times, on whom apostolic com-
mendations had been bestowed, and to the holy women
who, in the days of our Lord's earthly life, had ministered
to Him of their substance.3

The whole controversy, with its artificial and somewhat
Oriental conception of the Christian status of womanhood,

1 Dudley, Analysis of the System, etc., pp. 345, 348.

2 Owen, History, vol. iii. p. 155.

3 Third Annual Report of the Ladies' Branch of the Manchester and Salford
Auxiliary. Sixth Annual Report of the Glasgow Auxiliary.

i8i7] LADIES' BIBLE SOCIETIES 59

seems amusing enough to-day, but it is a curious illustra-
tion of the manners of the time that it was not until 1831
that the "Christian fair" were admitted to the annual
gatherings of the Society.

The origin of the Female Associations was spontaneous
and uncalculated. Incidentally three have been mentioned.
Confining our view at present to England alone, it is to
be noted that the first Ladies' Bible Society in direct and
exclusive connection with the parent institution was that
formed at Westminster in August 1811, and its judicious
and persuasive appeal to the public did much to secure,
in the following year, the establishment of the Westminster
Auxiliary, with which it must not be confounded. In
November 1812 a smaller Association was begun at
Lymington. The difficulties which the committee of the
Colchester Auxiliary experienced in reaching the poor led
to the organisation of a Ladies' Association in March 1813,
under the patronage of the Countess of Chatham. In July
1813 a similar Association was instituted at Guildford, and
within seven years it had distributed 2160 Bibles and
Testaments, and transmitted ^222 for the general purposes
of the British and Foreign Bible Society. In April 1814,
Godalming followed the example of Guildford, and at the
close of that year Mr Dudley, who at this time was taking
an especial interest in the subject, was invited to attend
one of the general meetings.

The possibility of enlisting the sympathies of the women
of Great Britain in the cause of the Bible Society was first
suggested to him by a singularly nai've and charming letter
in which Pastor Oberlin of Walbach in the Ban de la
Roche acknowledged a donation of ^30 for the purpose
of purchasing and distributing French and German Bibles
and Testaments among the poor inhabitants of the well-
nigh inaccessible mountain villages in the Vosges. We
shall see more of this remarkable minister in a later chapter ;

60 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [I8o4-

in the meanwhile here is a glimpse from his own pen of
some of the lowly women with hearts of gold, who ministered
to Christ in this wild region of rocks and pine-trees : —

" The first Bible shall be given as a present to Sophia Bernard, who
is one of the most excellent women I know, and indeed an ornament to
my parish. While unmarried, she undertook, with the consent of her
parents, the support and education of three helpless boys, whom their
wicked father had often trampled under his feet, and treated in a manner
too shocking to relate when, nearly starving with hunger, they dared to
cry out for food. Soon afterwards she proved the happy means of saving
the lives of four Roman Catholic children, who, without her assistance,
would have fallen a prey to want and famine. Thus she had the manage-
ment of seven children, to whom several more were added, belonging
to members of three several denominations ; she now hired a house and
a servant girl, and supported the whole of the family entirely with her
own work and the little money she got from the industry of the children,
whom she taught to spin cotton. At the same time she proved the greatest
blessing to the whole village where she lived. For it is impossible to
be more industrious, frugal, clean, cheerful, edifying by her whole walk
and conversation ; more ready for every good word and work; more mild and
affectionate ; more firm and resolute in dangers, than she was. Satan so
enraged some of her enemies, that they threatened to destroy her old
tottering cottage, but God was graciously pleased to preserve her. A
fine youth of a noble mind made her an offer of his hand. She first
refused, but he declared he would wait for her even ten years. When
she replied that she could never consent to part with her poor orphans,
he nobly answered, 'Whoever takes the mother takes the children too.'
So he did ; and all these children were brought up by them in the most
careful and excellent manner, Lately they have taken in some other
orphans, whom they are training up in the fear and love of God. Though
these excellent people pass rather for rich, yet their income is so limited,
and their benevolence so extensive, that sometimes they hardly know
how to furnish a new suit of necessary clothes. To them I intend to
give a Bible, considering that their own is often lent out in different Roman
Catholic villages.

" A second Bible I intend to give to an excellent woman, Maria
Schepler, who lives at the opposite end of my extensive parish, where
the cold is more severe, and the ground unfruitful, so that nearly all
the householders are poor people, who must lend their clothes to each
other when they intend to go to the Lord's Supper. This poor woman
is also a very distinguished character, in whose praise I could say much
were I to enter into particulars. Though distressed and afflicted in her own
person and circumstances, yet she is a mother, benefactress, and teacher

,8i7] MR DUDLEY'S SYSTEM 61

to the whole village where she lives, and to some neighbouring districts
too. She takes the most lively interest in all which relates to the
Redeemer's kingdom upon earth, and often groans under a sense of
all the inroads made by the powers of darkness. She also has brought
up several orphans, without receiving the smallest reward, keeps a free
school for females, and makes it a practice to lend her Bible to such
as are entirely deprived of it.

" A third Bible present I intend to make to an excellent widow woman,
Catharine Scheiddegger, who is, like the former, a mother of orphans,
and keeps a free school ; as also does another young woman, who instructs
little children in a neighbouring village in such knowledge as may
render them useful members of human and Christian society."

The idea thus suggested to Mr Dudley was strengthened
by the evidences he perceived of a desire to co-operate on the
part of the women in this country. Female Associations
were shaping themselves to take a share in the noble work,
but their regulations were inadequate, and the system needed
the elaboration of a mind gifted with administrative ability.
Prolonging his stay at Godalming, Mr Dudley drew up a
code of rules and by-laws, which were adopted by the Com-
mittee of the Society, and became thenceforward the model
for all future Associations of that class. In 1815 he re-
organised the Ladies' Bible Society at Westminster, and
divided Westminster and the neighbourhood into thirteen
suitable districts, with such happy results that whereas only
,£150 had been collected, and 223 Bibles and Testaments
distributed in the four preceding years, the collections in
the five years that followed exceeded ^2650, and 2400 copies
of the Scriptures were circulated.

Accredited by the unanimous vote of the Committee,
Mr Dudley set out on a tour of construction and re-organisa-
tion. Ladies' Associations on the new scheme were
promptly founded at Farnham, Maidenhead, Kingston,
Henley, Reading, Abingdon, Southampton, Bristol, Brighton
and Weymouth, to mention no more ; and in the next four
or five years one hundred and eighty were established
through his instrumentality, and the whole system of Bible

62 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-1817

Associations began gradually to pass in a great measure
into the hands of female workers.

As a single illustration of the thorough efficiency of this
new instrument seen in operation at its best, the Ladies'
Liverpool Branch may be instanced. It was established in
May 1817, and reformed in the following December. Under
the patronage of the Countess of Derby, over 600 ladies
were engaged in the methodical investigation and supply
of 341 districts. In less than three months they obtained
7292 subscribers, issued 1338 Bibles and Testaments, and
raised more than ^970. At the close of the first year the
number of subscribers exceeded 10,000 ; more than 3000
Bibles and Testaments had been distributed by sale ; and
the aggregate amount collected was ^2552, of which ^518
was assigned for the general objects of the parent Society.

The extent to which the cause of the Bible was benefited
by the consummate executive ability and the wise enthusiasm
of Mr Dudley may be at least partly gauged by contrasting
these splendid results with the work done by this same
Branch before he undertook its re-organisation. During the
nine preceding months about 700 persons had been enrolled
as subscribers, 271 copies of the Scriptures had been sold,
and 35 distributed gratuitously ; the amount collected was
^"412 ; and in their first report the Ladies' committee stated
that "the further the collectors advanced in their work, the
more they were convinced of its urgent necessity and of
their inability to perform it."

Shortly afterwards Ladies' Branches were formed at
Manchester, Plymouth, Hull, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and other
places.

Having thus briefly reviewed the unanticipated rise and
the vigorous growth of the whole Auxiliary system, regarding
which none can have experienced more lasting surprise and
feelings of deeper gratitude than the founders of the Society,
let us turn to another aspect of these remarkable developments.

CHAPTER V

THE SECRET OF THE SOCIETY'S SUCCESS (ll.)

PUBLICITY, patronage, and, through these, financial support
were, as we have seen, the principal means on which,
humanly speaking, the promoters depended to attain their
object. It is no disparagement to them, but a just ascrip-
tion to Him, to whom at all times they gladly gave the
glory, if it be said that God granted the increase chiefly in
other fields than those Paul planted and Apollos watered.

This was the case in the matter of patronage. During
the period which we are now surveying a number of
influential names was added to the vice-presidential roll
of the Society, at the inauguration of which, as was long
remembered, "no royal prince, no nobleman, no bishop,
no member of Parliament was present." Of these staunch
and early friends it is desirable that a prominent place
should be given to the record showing the date and order
of their accession and the length of their tenure of office.

ROLL OF VICE-PRESIDENTS.

1805-1809 The Bishop of London (Beilby Porteus).

1805-1825 The Bishop of Durham (Hon. Shute Barrington).

1805-1807 The Bishop of Exeter (John Fisher, in 1807 Bishop of Salisbury)-

1805-1825 The Bishop of St David's (Thomas Burgess, in 1825 Bishop of

Salisbury)

1805-1816 Sir William Pepperell, Bart.1

1805-1832 Vice-Admiral Gambier (in 1808 Admiral Lord Gambier).

1805-1823 Charles Grant, M.P.

1805-1833 William Wilberforce, M.P.

1 The grandson of "the hero of Louisburg."

63

64 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS tl8o4.

1806-1813 Lord Barham (2nd Baron)

1807-1824 The Bishop of Salisbury (John Fisher).
1807-1829 Lord Headley (2nd Baron).
1807-1822 Sir Evan Nepean, Bart.1

1808-1821 The Archbishop of Cashel (Hon. Charles Brodrick).

1810-1820 The Bishop of Bristol (William Lort Mansel).

1810-1820 The Bishop of Cloyne (William Bennett).

1810-1818 The Bishop of Clogher (John Porter).

1810-1818 Sir Thomas Bernard, Bart.2

1811-1836 The Bishop of Norwich (Henry Bathurst).

1811-1833 The Right Hon. Nicholas Vansittart, M.P. (in 1823 Lord

Bexley).
1811-1837 Thomas Babington, M.P.

1812-1846 The Bishop of Kildare (Hon. Charles Lindsay).

1812-1822 The Bishop of Meath (Thomas Lewis O'Beirne).

1812-1815 The Dean of Westminster (William Vincent).

1812-1844 The Earl of Romney (2nd Earl).

1813-1830 The Bishop of Derry (Hon. William Knox).
1813-1826 The Earl of Moira (in 1816 rst Marquis of Hastings).

1815-1816 The Bishop of Llandaff (Richard Watson).

1815-1823 The Bishop of Chichester (John Buckner).

1815-1819 The Dean of Carlisle (Isaac Milner).

1815 The Dean of Wells (Hon. H. Ryder, in 1815 Bishop of

Gloucester).
1815-1837 The Dean of Bristol (Henry Beeke).

1816-1824 The Bishop of Gloucester (Hon. H. Ryder, in 1824 Bishop of

Lichfield).

1816-1828 The Earl of Liverpool (Prime-Minister 1812-27).
1816-1846 The Earl of Harrowby (President of the Council 1812-27).
1 8 1 6- 1 844 Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart.3

Doubtless, in any circumstances, many illustrious names

1 Purser of the Foudroyant under Captain Jarvis (afterwards Lord St Vincent) ;
Secretary to the Admiralty ; Secretary for Ireland ; Governor of Bombay (1812-19).

'2 Treasurer and afterwards Vice-President of the Foundling Hospital ; one of the
founders of the Royal Institution.

3 Persian Ambassador and Minister-Plenipotentiary in 1810 ; assisted in founding
the Royal Asiatic Society.

,8i7] SUMMARY OF THE AUXILIARIES 65

would have been added in the course of time to this list
of patrons ; but if there had been no Auxiliaries, the
Society would never have secured the brilliant cortege of
nobility and gentry which these local bodies enlisted for
it in all parts of the kingdom.

At the close of this volume a Table will be found,1 in
which the Auxiliary system in England and Wales is dis-
played with a range and completeness otherwise unattain-
able ; and those who desire to understand how the Society
was built up will do well to supplement the outline given
in the present chapter by a careful study of that long and
suggestive catalogue.

Up to 1809 the only institution that might be called
an Auxiliary was the Birmingham Association, founded
in 1806. In 1809 five Auxiliaries sprang up; in 1810
fourteen; in 1811 thirty-two; in 1812 sixty-three; in 1813
thirty-one ; in 1814 sixteen ; in 1815 nine ; in 1816 six ;
and many of these had branches which covered a large
area of country.

By the end of the tenth year (1813) Auxiliaries, one
or more, had been established in thirty-nine of the forty
English shires. With the formation of the Herefordshire
Auxiliary in August 1814, every county in England had
allied itself with the Bible Society. All denominations
had joined in its support; "Bishops who would do
nothing for evangelical movements inside the Church
gave it their names and influence " ; 2 its patronage included
the Princess of Wales, royal dukes and duchesses, marquises,
earls and countesses, viscounts, barons, baronets, and
knights too numerous to mention.

The founding of each Auxiliary was an event of deep
interest far beyond its own locality. In this chapter, how-
ever, we can only select from the record of the one hundred

1 See Appendix II.

2 Stock, History Church Missionary Society, vol. i. p. I $2,

VOL, I, E

66 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-

and seventy-six Auxiliaries founded up to 1816 a few details
which distinguished the formation of some of these institu-
tions from the rest. A broad Christian spirit, an un-
sectarian fervour, and a happy eloquence characterised
the inaugural meetings in general.

The Reading Auxiliary owed its foundation chiefly
to the exertions of the learned Dr Richard Valpy, who
from 1781 had been head-master of the Reading School,
and whose once indispensable Latin Delectus is still
remembered by the querulous scholars of five and forty
years ago. Descended from a very old J.ersey family, he
was born in 1754; he retained his head-mastership at
Reading till 1830; declined, it is said, two bishoprics;
became rector of Stradishall, Suffolk ; died at Kensington
in March 1836 at the ripe age of eighty-two, and was
buried at Kensal Green. Though he was one of the
heartiest floggers of his half century — and many of his
subjects, had they met with Terence's Ego vapulando^ ille
verberando usque ambo defessi sumus, might have derived
by metathesis Valpy a vapulando — he inspired his pupils
(among the rest Justice Talfourd, the author of Ion} with
an intense personal attachment.

At the inaugural meeting of this Auxiliary (March
28, 1809), the Society was represented by its Secretaries
Mr Owen and Mr Hughes, who were accompanied
by the brother of Granville Sharp, Mr William Sharp,
then verging on his eighty -first year. "He loved
affectionately all good men," writes Mr Owen, and was
deeply devoted to the Society, whose anniversaries he
honoured by his venerable presence. "Five of these
festivals he had witnessed, and it was the desire of his
heart — were it consistent with that Will to which he was
always resigned — to witness a sixth. But he had another
and a better destination ; for ere that era should arrive
he was to take his place in a higher region ; and to

,817] THE LIVERPOOL AUXILIARY FOUNDED 67

celebrate the triumph of Christian faith and love in a
larger and more august assembly."

With regard to the Hull Auxiliary, it is interesting to
note that a couple of years after it was founded, two little
fellows — one fifteen, the other nine years of age — gave their
services as collectors of a penny a week in aid of the funds
of the Society. One of them, Francis Close, became Dean
of Carlisle and a Vice-President, and died in 1882 at the
ripe age of eighty-five. The other, the Rev. Dr Evans,
was in 1882 still devoting his remaining strength to the
cause as secretary of the Western Ontario Bible Society,
Canada.

To Swansea (April 27, 1810) must be assigned the distinc-
tion of having been the first Auxiliary founded in Wales.

The contributions from Cornwall in the first year (1810-11)
amounted to ^915, a notable degree of liberality from a
county more remarkable for the traditions of its antique
saints than for the affluence of its population.

Mr Owen was engaged in correspondence for two
years before the Liverpool Auxiliary was founded, and it
was esteemed a triumph for the cause of the Bible when
the rank, wealth, and interest of that great commercial
city, which had so long been a stronghold of the slave-
trade, were at last enlisted under the banner of the
institution. The Secretaries were present at the foundation
of the Auxiliary on the 25th March 1811, and on the ist
May it was able to present ^1,800 to the parent Society.

At the establishment of the Suffolk Auxiliary at
Ipswich, Thomas Clarkson, the friend and champion of
the negro, read a stimulating message from the venerable
Sir William Dolben, who had been one of the earliest
and most persistent abolitionists, and who was then in
his eighty-fifth year.

The exceptional circumstances in which the Colchester
Auxiliary was formed in 1811 ought not to be lost sight of.

68 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-

After some correspondence with the Secretary of the Bible
Society, a provisional committee of ministers of the
Established Church — to whom the Nonconformists had
voluntarily left the management of preliminaries — issued
invitations to a preparatory meeting to decide on the
establishment of an Auxiliary. Between twenty and
thirty clergymen attended, and it was unanimously agreed
to request the Bishop of London, as Bishop of the diocese,
to become the patron. The eminent and beloved Porteus
had died in 1808, and his see was now filled by Dr John
Randolph, sometime Bishop of Oxford and later of Bangor.
Bishop Randolph's reply to his clergy was couched in
terms so decidedly hostile to the principles of the Society
and all its operations that the provisional committee deemed
it judicious to dissolve till a more favourable opportunity
occurred. His lordship, forgetful of the administrative
circumspection and the sanctity of his predecessor, pro-
fessed himself disgusted with the "pomp and parade with
which the proceedings, and indeed all the meetings, of
the new Society were set forth in the public papers ; and
the more so when he compared it with the simplicity and
modesty of the old society" (the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge).

In treating their diocesan's reply with the public respect
due to his office, the Colchester clergymen by no means
committed themselves to inaction. They resolved to aid
the Society by individual subscriptions ; and the Noncon-
formists, much to the credit of their right feeling, self-
effacement, and Christian unity, cheerfully concurred.
They aided in the formation of a district committee for
the benefit of the Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge, and at length, after an interval of eighteen months,
when it was considered that time and the merits of the
Society ought to have mitigated the asperity of its opponents,
it was arranged to take a course which would obviate any

i8i7] THE CHARGES AGAINST THE SOCIETY 69

unseemly friction between the clergy and their diocesan,
by committing the whole organisation to the hands of
laymen. The honour of being president was accepted by
Mr Horatio Cock, who not only showed a warm interest
in the affairs of the Auxiliary during his life, but at his
death bequeathed to the Society a legacy of ,£11,695.

The Staffordshire Auxiliary was founded in 1811 on the
suggestion of Viscount Anson, who was already a vice-pre-
sident of the Norwich Auxiliary. The gentle and brilliant
Thomas Gisborne was present at the meeting, and one
passage in his address may be quoted as not wholly in-
applicable even at the present day : —

"The charges advanced against the British and Foreign Bible Society,
at different periods of its progress, were they not likely to be occasionally
mischievous, might furnish considerable entertainment. At one time it was
clamorously alleged, 'Notes and comments and interpretations will be in-
serted into your Bibles ; you will undermine the Church of England by
the expositions which you will interweave into the sacred volume.' ' It is
impossible,' replied the Society ; ' it is a fundamental law of our constitution
that neither note nor comment shall ever be added.' Then succeeds an
accusation from the opposite corner of the sky, 'Why do you send forth
the Scriptures without an interpretation ? The Established Church will
be ruined by your dispersion of the Bible without note or comment ! ' I
leave these two classes of objectors to settle accounts each with the other.
For the overthrow of the Bible Society both are equally anxious."

Happy was the Society which numbered among its
members so sweet, lovable, and gifted a man as Thomas
Gisborne, the rector of Yoxall, the poet of the ancient
Forest of Needwood, and for more than fifty years the
bosom friend of William Wilberforce. He is one of those
bright and memorable figures who live for ever in the
pages of Sir James Stephen. Between the Lodge in the
centre of the Forest and the roofs of his parishioners there
were three miles of tangled brakes and sunny uplands, and
they harboured no plant or wild flowers of which he knew
not the use and legend, no wild creature in feathers of fur

70 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-

which was not a familiar acquaintance. The room in
which he passed his hours of study amusingly reflected
his tastes and pursuits: "books and MSS., plants and
pallets, tools and philosophical instruments, birds perched
on the shoulder or nestling in the bosom of the student,
or birds curiously stuffed by his hands, usurped the places
usually assigned to the works of the upholsterer." When
a companion shared his rambles, he could "throw aside
the reserve which hung upon him in crowded saloons, and
could pour himself out in a stream of discourse, sometimes
grave and speculative, but more frequently sparkling with
humorous conceits, or eddying into retrospects of the
comedy of life, of which he had been a most attentive,
though too often a silent spectator." His duties and his
preferences did not prevent him from taking his share in
the pursuits to which his friends, the brotherhood at
Clapham, had devoted their lives. "His heart was with
them. His pen and purse were ever at their command."
Among a later generation his Principles of Moral Philosophy
Investigated, his Familiar Survey of the Christian Religion
and History, his Poems Sacred and Moral, his Walks in a
Forest, have "fallen into the portion of weeds and outworn
faces." By his contemporaries they were read with delight,
and with predictions of fame enduring. And not without
a reasoned probability. "For Mr Gisborne contributed
largely to the formation of the national mind on subjects
of the highest importance to the national character. He
was the expositor of the Evangelical system to those
cultivated or fastidious readers, .who were intolerant of
the ruder style of his less refined brethren." A
sympathetic pastor in the populous village beyond his
Forest, he was never happier than when chatting by a
poor man's fireside about crops and village politics,
chickens and bees and children ; helping in trouble, con-
soling in sorrow, and dropping into softened hearts

i8i7] THE CAMBRIDGE AUXILIARY 71

thoughts of goodness and of the bringing in of a better
hope. With one last look we see him vanish away, like
a film of morning mist, among the dim trees of Needwood.
"A daughter of the ancient house of Babington became the
companion of his retirement during a period of almost
sixty years ; staying her steps upon his arm, imbibing
wisdom from his lips, gathering hope and courage from
his eye, and rendering to him such a homage, or rather
such a worship, as to draw from the object of it a raillery
so playful, so tender, and so full of meaning, that perhaps
it ultimately enhanced the affectionate error which, for the
moment, it rebuked."1

The Cambridge Auxiliary (December 12, 1811) originated
in the fervour of the junior members and undergraduates
of the University, who with the modesty of youth promptly
withdrew themselves from prominence when they found
the cause taken up by the University authorities, the
county, and the town. The object was not accomplished,
however, without exciting formidable opposition. In an
address to the Senate, Dr Marsh, Lady Margaret Professor
of Divinity, declared: "We have at present two very
extensive Bible Societies, the one founded in 1699, the
other in 1804. Both of our archbishops, and all our
bishops, with the Prince Regent at the head, are members
of the former ; neither of the two archbishops, and only a
small proportion of the bishops, are members of the latter."
He contended, apparently from the constitution and object
of the two Societies, that ' ' our encouragement of the
ancient Bible Society must contribute to the welfare of the
Established Church," whereas "our encouragement of the
modern Society not only contributes nothing to it in prefer-
ence to other Churches, but may contribute even to its
dissolution." The Right Hon. N. Vansittart, who after-

1 Stephen, The Clapham Sect, pp. 531-535. The wife of his brother John, it may
be added, was the Maria Gisborne who was Shelley's friend, and to whom the poet
addressed the well-known Letter, " The spider spreads her webs.'1

72 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-

wards, as Lord Bexley, became President of the British
and Foreign Bible Society, replied to these remarkable
contentions with the good sense and moderation which
have all along been characteristic of the part taken in
controversy by its officials and friends. Admitting that
the ecclesiastical patronage of the Society was inferior
in brilliancy, he questioned whether "the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge was at so short a period
from its formation honoured with the support of so large
a body of the prelates," and he expressed the hope that
"the time might not be far distant when the two Societies
might equally flourish under the general patronage of them
all." He deprecated the bitterness of sectarianism, pointed
out its disastrous results in preventing the spread of the
Gospel, and avowed that, so far from repenting of the
course he had taken, he felt convinced that he would
"least of all repent of it as he approached that state in
which the distinction of Churchman and Dissenter should
be no more."

Dr Marsh, a distinguished scholar, who was chiefly
known in his day as the translator of the elaborate work
of Michaelis on the New Testament, resided for many
years in Gottingen, and on the invasion of Germany by
the French in 1806 returned to England and was appointed
Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in 1807. On the
death of Dr Watson, one of the vice-presidents of the
Society, in 1816, he was appointed to the see of Llandaff,
and three years later was translated to Peterborough.

But let us forget awhile these "old, unhappy, far-off
things and battles long ago," and accompany our Secretaries
to the old city of Norwich, with its narrow winding streets
and sunny orchards. It was before gas-lit nights and the
days of railways. Gas had indeed starred Golden Lane
in 1807 and Pall Mall in 1809, but it was not till 1814-20
that it began to be in general use throughout London. The

,8i7] THE NORWICH AUXILIARY 73

Eastern Counties Railway as far as Chelmsford was not
opened till 1839, and it reached Norwich only in 1845. The
coaching distance from Aldgate Pump to Norwich Market-
place was in| miles, along the Roman road through
Romford, Ingatestone, and Chelmsford ; thence to the
"ceaster" of "old King Cole" or Coil, whose daughter
Helena was believed to have been the mother of
Constantine the Great ; on to Ipswich, and through Scole
to Norwich. This was the route our Secretaries travelled
—by coach no doubt ; and they passed on this side or that
at every few miles old churches with their curious legends
or veritable stories, old country-seats, old towns and
hamlets where great men were born and bred — Ipswich
with its Wolsey (who finished only the gateway of the
splendid college he projected), and, long afterwards, its
Daniel Defoe ; Dedham with its Constable, who at this
very time was yearly sending in his marvellous canvases
to the Academy ; Brentwood, with its William Hunter,
the boy-saint, destined to end his brief career in martyrdom
at twenty in the evil days of 1555.

The Auxiliary was founded at one of the most memorable
of meetings. A Bishop (Bathurst) was present, for the
first time in the formation of these institutions ; those most
delightful and admirable of Quakers, the Gurneys of Earlham,
were there ; about 600 Churchmen and Nonconformists
of every class attended. Joseph John Gurney, a powerful
supporter of the Bible cause, describes the event in a letter
of especial personal interest : —

"Norwich, September 1811. Nothing could be better
than our Bible Society meeting. Understanding that
considerable numbers would attend, we were obliged to
transfer ourselves to St Andrew's Hall. . . . The Mayor
looked magnificent, with his gold chain, in the chair. The
Bishop first harangued, and admirably well, upon the
excellence of the British and Foreign Bible Society, its

74 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-

objects, constitution, and effects. He then introduced the
Secretaries. Steinkopf, a most interesting German and
Lutheran, and as far as I can judge from an acquaintance
of three days, a remarkably simple and devoted character,
first came forward. He told the tale of what the Society
had done in Germany and other parts of Europe in broken
but good English, and by degrees he warmed the meeting
into enthusiasm. He was followed by Hughes, the Baptist
Secretary, an eloquent, solid, and convincing orator. The
company were now ready for the resolutions. The Bishop
proposed them, I seconded them [his first public speech],
and after I had given a little of their history and purport
they were carried with great acclamation. This was a
great relief, as we trembled at the idea of a discussion.
The Bishop was thanked for his liberality. It was really
delightful to hear an old Puritan and a modern bishop
saying everything that was kind and Christian-like of
each other.1 The Bishop's heart seemed quite full ; and
primitive Kinghorn, when the Bishop spoke of him so
warmly, seemed ready to sink into the earth with surprise
and terrified modesty. Owen closed the meeting with an
unnecessarily splendid but most effectual address. More
than ^"700 was collected before the company left the hall.

"We had a vast party at Earlham, and a remarkable
day, a perfectly harmonious mixture of High Church, Low
Church, Lutheran, Baptist, Quaker ! It was a time which
seemed to pull down all barriers of distinction, and to melt
us all into one common Christianity. Such a beginning
warrants us to expect much.":

Another correspondent \vrites : "At five we adjourned
to Earlham Hall to dinner, when we sat down thirty-four

1 The Bishop's relations with his neighbours of other denominations appears to
have been unusually cordial and exemplary. "The Gurneys at this time drove out
with four black horses, which used to be lent to Bishop Bathurst, as more pompous,
when he required horses for state occasions, the episcopal roan horses then taking the
Quaker family to Meeting."

- Hare, The Gurneys of Earlhain, vol. i. p. 229.

I8i7] THE GURNEYS OF EARLHAM 75

in number — a mixture of different sects and persuasions.
Words fail to express the delightful harmony of our feel-
ings. Soon after the cloth was removed, our dear friend
Elizabeth Fry [Joseph John Gurney's sister, who had come
from London for the occasion] knelt down, and in a most
sweet and impressive manner implored the divine blessing
upon the company present, and for the general promotion
of truth upon earth. On her rising, the Secretary, Joseph
Hughes (a Dissenting minister), observed in a solemn
manner : ' Now of a truth I perceive that God is no
respecter of persons, but that in every age and nation those
who fear Him and work righteousness are accepted of Him,'
and the conversation, becoming general, flowed on in a
strain which assuredly had less in it of earth than of
heaven."

Of this striking and beautiful incident Mr Hughes him-
self writes : "The first emotion was surprise: the second,
awe : and the third, pious fervour. . . . We seemed
generally to feel like the disciples whose hearts burned
within them as they walked to Emmaus."1

Long afterwards Joseph John Gurney's daughter recorded
that the Bible Meeting party at Earlham was one of the
most marked events in each year. She remembered how
her "dearest father" put her, as a little child, on the
table at dessert, to look at a party of ninety — "the largest
we ever had." He most truly enjoyed them, having often
round him "those whose conversation was a feast to him,"
such as Wilberforce, Charles Simeon, Legh Richmond,
and her "uncles Buxton and Cunningham "-—Thomas
Fowell Buxton and John Cunningham, Rector of Harrow,
a staunch friend and active promoter of the Bible Society.

Even though it be anticipating the record of future
years, it is impossible to resist the temptation of completing
here the picture of this most estimable friend of the Society,

1 Hare, The Gurneys of Earlham, vol. i. pp. 231-232.

76 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-

from pages which must be familiar to many, but which are
invested with a peculiar interest by their present setting:—

"There I sat upon the bank at the bottom of the hill
which slopes down from ' the Earl's Home ' [Earlham] ; my
float was on the water, and my back was towards the old
hall. I drew up many fish, small and great, which I
took from off the hook mechanically and flung upon the
bank, for I was almost unconscious of what I was about,
for my mind was not with my fish. . . .

"'Canst thou answer to thy conscience for pulling all
those fish out of the water, and leaving them to gasp in
the sun?' said a voice, clear and sonorous as a bell.

"I started and looked round. Close behind me stood
the tall figure of a man, dressed in raiment of quaint and
singular fashion, but of goodly materials. He was in the
prime and vigour of manhood ; his features handsome and
noble, but full of calmness and benevolence ; at least I
thought so, though they were somewhat shaded by a hat
of finest beaver, with broad drooping eaves.

"'Surely that is a very cruel diversion in which thou
indulgest, my young friend?' he continued.

"'I am sorry for it, if it be, sir,' said I, rising; 'but
I do not think it cruel to fish.'

" ' What are thy reasons for not thinking so? '

"'Fishing is mentioned frequently in Scripture. Simon
Peter was a fisherman.'

" 'True ; and Andrew his brother. But thou forgettest :
they did not follow fishing as a diversion, as I fear thou
doest. — Thou readest the Scriptures?'

" 'Sometimes.'

"'Sometimes? — not daily? — That is to be regretted.
What profession dost thou make ? — I mean to what
religious denomination dost thou belong, my young friend?'

"'Church.'

" ' It is a very good profession. There is much of

i8i7] JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY 77

Scripture contained in its liturgy. Dost thou read aught
besides the Scriptures?'

" ' Sometimes.'

" ' What dost thou read besides?'

" 'Greek, and Dante.'

'''Indeed! then thou hast the advantage over myself;
I can only read the former. Well, I am rejoiced to find
that thou hast other pursuits besides thy fishing. Dost
thou know Hebrew?'

"'No.'

" ' Thou shouldst study it. Why dost thou not undertake
the study?'

" ' I have no books.'

" 'I will lend thee books, if thou wish to undertake the
study. I live yonder at the hall, as perhaps thou knowest.
I have a library there, in which are many curious books,
both in Greek and Hebrew, which I will show to thee
whenever thou mayest find it convenient to come and see
me. Farewell ! I am glad to find thou hast pursuits more
satisfactory than thy cruel fishing.'

"When many years had rolled on, long after I had
attained manhood, and had seen and suffered much, and
when our first interview had long since been effaced from
the mind of the man of peace, I visited him in his venerable
hall, and partook of the hospitality of his hearth. And there
I saw his gentle partner and his fair children, and on the
morrow he showed me the books of which he had spoken
years before by the side of the stream. In the low quiet
chamber, whose one window, shaded by a gigantic elm,
looks down the slope towards the pleasant stream, he took
from the shelf his learned books, Zohar and Mishna,
Toldoth Jesu and Abarbenel. ' I am fond of these
studies,' said he, 'which, perhaps, is not to be wondered
at, seeing that our people have been compared to the Jews.

;8 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-

In one respect I confess we are similar to them ; we are
fond of getting money. I do not like this last author,
this Abarbenel, the worse for having been a money-
changer. I am a banker myself, as thou knowest.'

"And would there were many like him, amidst the
money-changers of princes ! The hall of many an earl
lacks the bounty, the palace of many a prelate the piety
and learning, which adorn the quiet Quaker's home ! " l

Few need be told that the youth who fished beside
the "Earl's Home" was George Borrow.

One of the promoters of the York Auxiliary was Lindley
Murray, whose English Grammar and English Exercises caused
perhaps even a more widespread discomfort than the classic
achievements of Dr Valpy amongst the school children of
many generations. The son of Quaker parents, Murray
was born near Doncaster in Pennsylvania in 1745. Smart-
ing under the severe punishment inflicted for some fault,
he left his father, and betook himself to a school in New
Jersey, acquired a taste for books, studied law, and after
some experience as a barrister, ventured into business, made
a competency, and, in 1784, came to England and settled
down at Holgate near York, where he devoted himself to
the cause of education and morals. He closed a useful
and not undistinguished life in 1826, at the age of eighty-
one.

The date for the founding of the Northampton Auxiliary
in 1812 was fixed to suit the convenience of the Prime
Minister, the illustrious representative of the town, the
Right Hon. Spencer Perceval. Unhappily, on the nth
May, he was assassinated by Bellingham on entering the
lobby of the House of Commons. The whole tragedy — the
appearance of Mr Perceval, "a small man, dressed in a
blue coat and white waistcoat," and that of his murderer,

1 Borrow, Lavengro, chap. xv.

,8i7] THE MURDER OF MR PERCEVAL 79

"in a snuff-coloured coat with metal buttons," the firing of
the pistol and the stain of blood under the left breast — was
dreamed thrice over by a Mr Williams of Scorrier House,
near Redruth in Cornwall, about the 2nd or 3rd of May ;
and Mr Williams himself records that he was prompted to
go to London and warn the Premier, but was dissuaded
by his friends from an undertaking which might expose
him to contempt and vexation. Very strangely, on the
loth of May, a day before the crime was committed, a
rumour or report of the deed reached Bude Kirk, a village
near Annan, and the fact was afterwards mentioned in the
local paper.1 Mr Perceval was sincerely attached to the
Society, and on the renewal of the patent of the King's
Printer, in 1810, he sent for the Secretaries to inquire
whether the monopoly caused any obstruction to the Society
in circulating the Scriptures in Ireland. Nothing, he
assured them, should enter the patent likely to interfere
with the Society's work. The inaugural meeting on the
27th May was attended by Mr Owen and Mr Hughes, and
the Duke of Grafton presided.

At the establishment of the Chester Auxiliary in 1812, the
sweet singer and divine of Needwood once more left the
enchanted shades of his Forest ; and toleration and unity
were the theme of his discourse. "The Societies for
Propagating the Gospel and for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and all other
associations, in whatever land, for spreading the Holy
Scriptures, ought to regard themselves," Mr Gisborne con-
tended, "as parallel columns of a combined army, marching
onward side by side for the subjugation of a common foe.
. . . To each of the individual columns that man would
be the most pernicious counsellor — to the general cause
that man would be the most dangerous adversary — who
should persuade one of the columns jealously to turn the

1 Andrew Lang, The Book of Dreams and Ghosts, p. 38.

80 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-

line of its direction obliquely, to cross upon the course,
and to thwart the operations of its neighbour."

Very different from this Christian impartiality was the
attitude taken by a pious and learned prelate in connection
with the establishment of the Gloucester Auxiliary. The
Dukes of Norfolk and Beaufort had consented to be
presidents, and it was earnestly desired that the Bishop
of the diocese (Huntingford) should strengthen the move-
ment. His lordship, however, declined the invitation, with
the observation that he regarded the Society for Promot-
ing Christian Knowledge and that for Propagating the
Gospel in Foreign Parts as having " claims on the clergy
of the Establishment for all the pecuniary aid and mental
exertion which could possibly be contributed by them in
support of those ancient and chartered societies " - an
observation that drew from Mr Owen a deferential and
moderate answer.

When the Duke of Kent lent his prestige to the
Camberwell Auxiliary, more than four years had yet to
run before he should marry the widow of the Prince of
Leiningen, who in 1819 placed in his arms the baby
Victoria, " plump as a partridge."

The investigations which preceded the formation of the
London Auxiliaries amply proved the need for the services
of the Bible Society. Taking into account the entire
range of London and Southwark, in which the condition
of 17,000 families was examined, it appeared that half the
population of the labouring classes was destitute of the
Scriptures. In one part of Bloomsbury, only thirty-eight
Bibles were found among 858 families, numbering 3000
persons. At the same time among the poor in general
there was a distinct predisposition to take advantage of the
facilities offered by the Society. Shortly after the inaugura-
tion of the City of London Auxiliary, a plan was issued
for the division of the metropolis into six districts, each

i8i7] THE OXFORD AUXILIARY 81

with its own Auxiliary, and a chart was published show-
ing the boundaries of each organisation.

The benevolent influence of the Bible cause in mitigat-
ing the asperities of denominational creeds and of party
politics, which was so often noticed at that time in various
parts of the country, was signally illustrated at the founda-
tion of the Westminster Auxiliary, December 17, 1812,
when, notwithstanding their political hostility, Mr Samuel
Whitbread and Lord Castlereagh stood on one platform
in the "perfect and blessed unanimity" of the very work
of the Apostles. '"It is indeed a spectacle to warm the
coldest and to soften the hardest heart," wrote the aged
Hannah More, "to behold men of the first rank and
talents — . statesmen who had never met but to oppose
each other, orators who have never spoken but to differ
— each strenuous in what it is presumed he believes
right, renouncing every interfering interest, sacrificing
every jarring opinion, forgetting all in which they
differ, and thinking only on that in which they agree,
each reconciled to his brother, and leaving his gift at
the altar, offering up every resentment at the foot of the
Cross."1

The brilliant meeting at which the Oxford Auxiliary
was formed (June 25, 1813), was reminded that it was in
their city that "the morning star of the Reformation, the
immortal Wickliff, first rose upon the world, and opened
the treasures of the New Testament : it was in Oxford
that three of our venerable Reformers laid down their lives
in support of the principles of our Church — and I will add,"
said the speaker, " in support of the principles of the British
and Foreign Bible Society ; it was in Oxford that one of
those Reformers, the venerable Latimer, uttered the memor-
able address to his fellow-martyr, ' Be of good comfort,
Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day

1 Hannah More, Christian Morals, vol. ii. p. 27.
VOL. I. F

82 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS [1804-

light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I
trust shall never be put out."

At the Flintshire inauguration at Holywell, Lord
Grosvenor mentioned that in ten parishes alone in the
county, 1300 inhabited houses were without a Bible, and
it was apprehended that these figures indicated the general
condition of the district.

As the patron of the Cinque Ports Auxiliary, Lord
Liverpool, who had succeeded Mr Perceval in the office of
Prime Minister, stated that he had appeared as a public
supporter of the Christian Knowledge Society, and he was
anxious to extend the influence and resources of that institu-
tion ; " but he saw no reason whatever why he should not at
the same time afford to the British and Foreign Bible Society
every assistance in his power, and why he should not evince
an equal anxiety to promote its success. The objects of
the two Societies were one — both dispersed the pure and
uncorrupted Word of God."

At this point it will be convenient to set forth the amounts
received from the entire Auxiliary system of the Society
up to the year 1816-17 :~

England . . ,£343,960 6 4

Wales . . . . . 24,111 17 3

Channel Isles .... 1,536 9 o

Isle of Man .... 494 8 6

Scotland ..... 34,804 16 u

Ireland ..... 9,342 12 i

British Colonies .... 4,670 14 3
Societies having other objects besides the

distribution of the Scriptures . . 995 o 8

5 °

The reader who has accompanied us thus far may be
left to form his own conclusions as to whether the success
of the Society was due to human prescience and skilful

i8i7] "NOT UNTO US" 83

management, or to those promptings of Providence which
set the feet of men upon paths undreamed of, and to those
spontaneous developments and unforeseen undertakings
which secured all that the world's greatest could confer of
distinction and patronage, and gave efficacy to that patronage
by the practical support of the poorest.

CHAPTER VI

THE BIBLE CAUSE IN SCOTLAND

THE confidence which was felt in the old traditions of
Scotland was, as we have seen, not disappointed. North of
the Border the cause of the Society was warmly espoused.
The Presbyteries of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paisley, Hamilton,
and Ayr and Irvine strongly commended it to the liberality
of the congregations within their bounds. The Scottish
Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge declared its
readiness to unite its efforts with those of the British and
Foreign Bible Society in promoting "one of the best
conceivable methods for the speedy and universal diffusion
of the Gospel," and it appointed a committee to correspond
with the Bible Society, and to devise methods for securing
for it financial support in Scotland. These friendly offices
led the way to that zeal and practical attachment which
in the course of a few years embodied among the most
generous promoters of the institution the "men of the
South, gentlemen of the North, people of the West, and
folk of Fife."1

Unhappily it was almost at the outset that the Bible
Society lost a wise and earnest advocate in the philanthropic
David Dale of Glasgow, who had taken the first steps to
awaken the interest of the Presbytery of Glasgow, and the
Synod of Glasgow and Ayr. The spirit in which he worked
may be gathered from the reply which he received from one

1 Dedication to Old Mortality. Old Mortality, one likes to remember, died as
late as 1801, on the roadside, in February, in his eighty-sixth year, in a winter of
deep snow.
84

1804-1817] DAVID DALE OF GLASGOW 85

of his friends, the Rev. Dr Dalrymple, a minister of Ayr :
— " I give you joy, and would take some share of it myself,
that we have lived to see the day of a British and Foreign
Bible Society. In the eighty-second year of my age, and
fifty-ninth of my ministry, next to both deaf and blind, it
is little I can do in an active way to assist in so glorious a
design ; but that little shall not be wanting. This evening
I intend to overture our Synod for a collection, after the
good example of the Presbytery of Glasgow."

Mr Dale, who was born at Stewarton, in Ayrshire, in
1739, began life as a journeyman weaver, but his industry
and mechanical skill soon provided him with a wider sphere
of activity. In 1778, in conjunction with Mr (afterwards
Sir) Richard Arkwright, who had taken a second patent
for his improved spinning frame three years before, he set
up the great cotton mills at Lanark, and kept the whole of
the west country busy making thread and weaving cotton.
Over the thousands, young and old, whom he employed,
he exercised a benevolent influence ; he provided teachers
and established schools, and if, in accordance with the custom
of the time, the hours of labour were long, the conditions
of life showed a distinct improvement as contrasted with
those of earlier years. Mr William Muir proved a worthy
successor to this energetic captain of labour. It was not
for long, however, that he was privileged to serve the
cause of the Bible, and on his death in 1812 the interests
of the Society were represented by Mr Archibald New-
bigging.

Out of these enlarged relations with Scotland there
emerged almost immediately the necessity of considering
the condition of the population of the Highlands, and the
supply of the Scriptures in Gaelic.

To understand the need for the Society's work, however,
and the circumstances in which it was undertaken, we must
endeavour to give some idea of the Scotland of 1805. With

86 THE BIBLE CAUSE IN SCOTLAND [1804-

respect to the Highlands, it will suffice to indicate the
changes, and the effect of the changes, which had taken
place in the course of the half century that had elapsed
since the divine right of the Stuarts perished on the Moor
of Culloden.

In the Lowlands, indeed, in the same period, changes
springing from widely different causes, but still more
revolutionary in their operations, had taken place. Let it
be remembered that even after 1750 gold was practically
unattainable, silver was hard to get, and the supply of
copper money was uncomfortably scanty ; l that shop-
keepers had much ado to find IDS. change for their
customers, and that the lairds in the northern counties
settled yearly accounts with a few boles of barley or a
few stones of flax and wool. And add to this that it was
not till 1749 that a stage-coach began to run between
Glasgow and Edinburgh ; that connection with London
was maintained by a monthly coach, which " sped " over
the distance in twelve or sixteen days ; and that as late
as 1746 the London mail-bag on one occasion contained
but a single letter for the Scottish capital.

A new era, however, was dawning. In 1720 the linen
industry, in 1742 calico printing, in 1760 carpet weaving,
the increase of banking companies, cotton weaving, the
extension of collieries, and the growth of iron foundries
with their blast furnaces, and in 1785 turkey-red dyeing,
crowded the growing towns with a busy manufacturing
population. "Starving droves of Highlanders came south
from impoverished crofts, and, not too heartily, worked
in the factories ; ploughmen left the fields for the mills,
and farmers were forced to raise their wages to keep
workers in their service. Hundreds of poor children were
brought from Edinburgh to the mills of Lanark, where
good David Dale took care of the training of their souls,

1 Graham, Social Life of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 256.

i8i7] SCOTLAND IN 1804 87

but kept their bodies at toil from six in the morning till
six at night, with only one hour's interval for rest and
food. There were 180,000 men, women, and children in
the West engaged in the operations connected with cotton
in I796."1 Improved methods of agriculture changed the
water-logged Lowlands into fruitful acres. The two great
seaports on the east and west were connected in 1790 by
a canal, which ran nearly in the line of the old vallum of
the Roman legionaries. The 999 vessels (53,913 tons)
which in 1760 trafficked in home manufactures, and brought
back rich cargoes of foreign and colonial produce, had grown
in 1800 to a fleet of 2415 sail (171,728 tons) with a comple-
ment of 14,820 men.2

The Excise revenue, which in 1797 had been
;£ i, 293,000, had risen in 1808 to ;£i, 793,000. And the
population, keeping pace with the prosperity of the country,
had increased from 1,255,000 in 1755 to 1,514,000 in 1791,
to 1,618,000 in 1801.

Yet, curiously enough, it was not till 1802 that Mr Telford,
engaged on a Government survey, proceeded to the High-
lands to draw out the lines of roads and plan the bridges
which were most needful. The first stage-coach which
ran north from Perth to Inverness started as late as 1806 ;
and it was only in 1809 that the Bridge of Dunkeld, which
formed, as it were, the door to the central Highlands, was
thrown open for traffic.

As for the Highlands, that "dark and remote country
inhabited by wild Scots," the fiasco of the '45 had revolu-
tionised the whole economy of life. Small farms were
abolished with their cluster of cots, and hundreds of tenants
were cleared off to make room for the sheep walks of
capitalists. The want and misery of the Highlands have
been generally attributed to these callous evictions of "an

1 Graham, Social Life of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 268.
" Mackintosh, History of Civilisation in Scotland, vol. iv. p. 381.

88 THE BIBLE CAUSE IN SCOTLAND [lSo4-

industrious peasantry," but it has now been made clear
that depopulation and poverty prevailed most in the districts
where the small tenantry and the old methods of farming
were continued longest. Still there were cases of harshness
and scant justice in plenty. The feudal days of chief and
vassal had passed for ever ; the summers of fitful labour
in the straths, the long winters of gossip and story-telling
beside the peat fire were with "the years beyond the Flood,"
and thousands had to turn their faces from the old land,
and eat the bread of exile till the close of their lives.

For generations the savagery of the Highlands had been
the despair of the Lowlands. About a hundred parish
schools had been founded up to 1732, yet a quarter of a
century later there was neither school nor schoolmaster
in 175 Highland parishes; and in many places all that
the people had of religion was a strange medley of half-
forgotten Catholicism and the fragments of a more ancient
Nature-worship, some phases of which have been preserved
in Carmichael's Cannina Gadelica. In daily practice their
minds were dominated by meaningless pagan customs,
old-world superstitions, an inveterate belief in charms,
incantations, holy wells, Beltane fires, and by an eerie
dread of wood-spirits, good neighbours of the fairy hillocks,1
washers of the ford. " I remember," wrote the Rev. Lachlan
Shaw in 1775, "when from Speymouth, through Strathspey,
Badenoch, and Lochiel to Lome there was but one school ;
and it was much to find in a parish three persons that

1 As late as 1840 a Highlander who was verging on his hundredth year was
accustomed to use the following "grace before meat": — "O Blessed One, provide
for us and help us, and let not Thy grace fall on us like rain-drops on the back of a
goose. Preserve the aged and the young, our wives and our children, our sheep and
our cattle, from the power and dominion of the fairies, and from the malicious effects
of an evil eye. Let a straight path be before us, and a happy end to our journey "
(Mackenzie, The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer, p. 106). Readers will recollect the
incident on which the Ettrick Shepherd founded Kilmeny ; a stranger case was that of
the Rev. Robert Kirke, who translated the Psalms into Gaelic verse, and who was
bodily carried away by the Daoine Schie, and may to this day be serving as chaplain
to the little folk in green. We shall hear more of him when we come to speak of the
Irish Bible,

i8i7] THE STATE OF THE HIGHLANDS 89

could read and write." Many years later still, as Mr
Graham points out, education made such slow progress
among the poor and listless people of these regions that in
1821 half of the population of 400,000, it was said, was
unable to read.

It is not difficult to realise the emotion with which the
Committee of the Bible Society discussed the melancholy
dearth of the Scriptures in the Highlands. They were
informed that very few families possessed a complete Bible.
In some parishes one in forty might have a single volume
of the divided book. A minister in Islay "did not suppose
that among 4,000 souls under his care there were a dozen
Gaelic Bibles" ; in Skye, with its 15,000 inhabitants, scarcely
a copy was to be found ; and all the Western Isles were
in a similar condition. Further, the prohibitive price
(255.) placed the Scriptures far beyond the reach of the
great mass of the Highland population ; and even had the
people been affluent, the books were so scarce as to be
almost unobtainable.

The condition of the Highlands is intelligible enough.
When the ancient versions of the Picts and Scots mentioned
by Bede perished in the ravage of monasteries and the
feuds of the clans, no one can say, but from that date
down to the last quarter of the seventeenth century the
Scottish Celts had no version of the Scriptures to which
they could turn. When the Irish Bible was completed in
two volumes 4to, in 1686, two hundred of the five hundred
copies printed were sent to the Highlands, and these were
probably the first Celtic Scriptures that had been seen for
centuries in the patrimony of Kentigern and Columba.
Owing to the similarity between Gaelic and Irish, the
text was generally understood, but the Erse character in
which it was printed proved so troublesome that an edition
in Roman type was issued in 1690. For sixty-four years
these seven loaves and two fishes had to suffice for the

go THE BIBLE CAUSE IN SCOTLAND [l8o4-

multitude. Then another edition of this Irish version —
500 copies — was printed in Glasgow.

To the Rev. James Stuart, minister of Killin, belongs
the honour of the first published translation of any part
of the Scriptures into Gaelic. Thanks, to some extent at
least, to a protest from Dr Johnson, his Gaelic New
Testament was issued in an edition of 10,000 copies by
the Scottish Society for the Promotion of Christian Know-
ledge in 1767. In the preceding year Johnson's attention
was drawn to the opposition of certain members of that
society, who regarded a Gaelic Testament as a most
impolitic encouragement of a language the accents of
which seemed the very slogan of Jacobitism. " I did not
expect to hear," wrote the great moralist, "that it could
be, in an assembly convened for the propagation of
Christian knowledge, a question whether any nation un-
instructed in religion should receive instruction ; or whether
that instruction should be imparted to them by a transla-
tion of the holy books into their own language. . . . To
omit for a year, or for a day, the most efficacious method of
advancing Christianity, in compliance with any purposes that
terminate on this side of the grave, is a crime of which
I know not that the world has yet had an example, except
in the practice of the planters of America, a race of mortals
whom, I suppose, no other man wishes to resemble. The
Papists have, indeed, denied to the laity the use of the
Bible; but this prohibition, in few places now very rigorously
enforced, is defended by arguments which have for their
foundation the care of souls. To obscure, upon motives
merely political, the light of revelation, is a practice re-
served for the reformed ; and surely the blackest midnight
of Popery is meridian sunshine to such a reformation."1

1 Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, letter to Mr William Drummond, Ijth August
1766. Drummond, a bookseller in Edinburgh, was "a gentleman of good family,
but small estate," who had been out in '45, and during his concealment in London
till the Act of Amnesty had obtained the friendship of Dr Johnson.

i8i7] THE GAELIC BIBLE 91

This remonstrance appears to have had the happiest
results, and the translation was sent to press.

In 1796 an edition of 20,000 copies was issued, and in
the meantime a version of the Old Testament was in
progress. It was divided into four parts, the first two
of which wrere translated by the son of the minister of
Killin, the Rev. Dr John Stuart of Luss, who revised the
third part, and the fourth part was translated by the Rev.
Dr Smith of Campbeltown. The first part appeared in
1783, and the whole was completed, in an edition of 5000
copies, in 1802.

Such then was the condition of the Highlands, and such
the provision of the Scriptures, when the subject was laid
before the Bible Society. A vast field, close at hand,
was ready for the sowing of the Christian labourer.
The population of the Highlands was estimated at 335,000,
of whom, it was represented, 300,000 understood no other
tongue than their old Celtic speech. Doubtless the Society
was made aware of the prevailing illiteracy of the people,
but it was their well-founded conviction that, so far from
education being an essential preliminary for the diffusion
of the Scriptures, the Scriptures were the speediest and
most efficacious inducement to education. Like the bee,
which when the Red Indians saw, they knew they must be
on the march, for the white man was coming — the first copy
of the Bible heralded the arrival of the teacher. The Com-
mittee of the Bible Society put themselves into communica-
tion with the Scottish Society for the Promotion of
Christian Knowledge, and the latter, although it was
itself engaged in preparing a new edition of the Bible,
handsomely redeemed its pledge of cordial co-operation,
gave all the information that was needed, and furnished
the revised Gaelic text which had been completed for its
own use, and thus the Society was enabled to embark
without delay on an edition of 20,000 copies of the complete

92 THE BIBLE CAUSE IN SCOTLAND [1804-

Gaelic Bible, and 10,000 of the New Testament, — an under-
taking accomplished at a cost of ^1615.

In 1807 a circular was sent to the ministers throughout
the Highlands, announcing that the Scriptures would be
ready in October, and offering them for sale to subscribers
at 35. 3d. for the Bible, and lod. for the New Testament,
and to ministers, whether subscribers or not, on the same
terms. Nearly half the impression was promptly disposed
of, and numerous letters were received testifying to the
gladness with which the Highlanders embraced the oppor-
tunity of obtaining at so low a price "a thing long wished
for over all the Highlands of Scotland." "Many of the
poor Highlanders of Glasgow, upon hearing of the cheap-
ness of the Scriptures in our native language, expressed
their heartfelt gratitude with tears in their eyes."

It was doubtless at this time that the incident occurred
which Dr Norman Macleod mentioned at the anniversary
meeting in May 1855. "I recollect," he said, "a clergy-
man many years ago telling how, while travelling through
the wild districts of the Highlands, he had seen a cart
with two or three horses attached to it, and he thought
he had come upon a party of smugglers; 'but judge of
my surprise,' he said, 'and my thankfulness, when I found
it was the first cargo of Bibles from the British and
Foreign Bible Society.' '

Of this edition 500 Bibles and 800 Testaments were at
once consigned to correspondents for sale or gratuitous
distribution among the poor in Canada and Nova Scotia,
whither thousands of Highlanders had emigrated. Among
these there must have been many who cherished memories
of chief and clan ; aged men and women with the
"second sight" of the heart, to whom the sound of the
wind brought back the cadences of a lost pibroch, and
the smoke of the evening fire recalled visions of clachan
and strath, of heather and boulder, of the green graves of

i8i7] GAELIC BIBLE SCHOOLS 93

the unforgotten dead ; and for whom the sight of the
Gaelic Scriptures, with their promise of life beyond death
and union after exile, must have been a foretaste of the
Wells of Elim. Copies were afterwards sent to the
United States, and in a little while the Gaelic version was
scattered far and wide, wherever the Highland tongue was
still read or spoken.

In 1809 another very large impression of Bibles and
Testaments was issued at reduced prices for the benefit of
the poor in the Highlands, and during the following year
the poor in the towns, and the schools which were being
established in the wild North, were assisted. Up to the year
1816-17 about 20,700 Bibles and 11,400 Testaments were
circulated in Scotland alone, at a cost to the Society of
more than ^1750. The Edinburgh Bible Society, when
it started, undertook the distribution, and the following
passages from a letter written by a farmer in the
Highlands to one of its Secretaries may be taken as an
illustration of what was happening in many another upland
valley : —

"When your letter came here, announcing your liberal
donation of Bibles, it roused a few from their former stupor
who could read a little of the Gaelic. We met, and pro-
posed to spend two hours twice a week, after six o'clock
in the evening, to rub up the little knowledge we had
had of reading Gaelic, preparatory to our receiving Bibles.
When they came to hand the number of learners increased
and many attended, among whom were soon found boys
and girls, from nine to fourteen years of age and upwards.
Our numbers still increasing, and several among us being
able and willing to teach others, we proposed opening
schools in the neighbouring populous districts of the
parish, which schools soon became like the mother-hive
and swarmed off to other districts, till our number
amounted to seven schools for reading the Scriptures in

94 THE BIBLE CAUSE IN SCOTLAND [1804-

our native language in a parish of seven miles in length.
Some of the mother-school teachers attend the other
schools in rotation ; and as many belonging to the other
schools as can convene at the mother-school once or
twice a month, when it is moonlight, attend and give
most satisfactory proofs of improvement."

To how many in after years those moonlight nights
must have been pleasant times to remember — the hush
of the hills, the silvered rock and tree, the schoolroom lit
with dim iron crusies, the strange gathering of faces, for
at these monthly meetings there were to be seen from two
to three hundred persons of both sexes and all ages —
"from childhood to the old and grey-headed using their
spectacles in learning to read their native language " ;
with one book between every two students, for even with
the addition of their own purchases the copies bestowed
upon them were still too few to supply all. At a later
date one hears of the grateful satisfaction with which the
Bibles and Testaments were welcomed, and the great
distances which many came on foot to receive them.

The activity and generosity with which the general
cause of the Bible Society was promoted in Scotland at
large are most effectually represented by the array of
Auxiliaries which sprang up between 1809-10 and iSio-iy,1
and which, besides relieving the parent Society of attention
to local needs, and otherwise furthering the work at home
and abroad, contributed during that period no less than
,£34,800 to its resources. But before these organisations
were formed the co-operation of ecclesiastical bodies and
congregations was of the heartiest and most steadfast
description. The early adherence of the Presbytery of
Glasgow has already been recorded. In 1808-9 that
reverend Court decreed a regular annual subscription ;
and year by year, even after the establishment of the

1 See The Auxiliary System in Scotland, Appendix II.

i8i7] GROWTH OF SCOTTISH AUXILIARIES 95

Glasgow Bible Society, a contribution ranging from ^700
to ,£900 was remitted to the Committee in London. The
Greenock and Port-Glasgow Society, started in 1807 for
the circulation of the Holy Scriptures and for the assist-
ance of other labourers in the same field, was also regular
in its support, until in 1813 it was merged in a county
organisation.

In 1809 the annals show a remittance, through Mr
W. Muir, the secretary in Glasgow, of £2296 from
various presbyteries in the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr,
and collections from the Presbyteries of Inverness and
Fordoun, and from congregations in Stirling, Perth,
Aberdeen, Peebles, Edinburgh, and Roxburgh.

In 1810 Nonconformist congregations are represented in
the sum of ^1382 received from Glasgow; collections in
the Synod of Aberdeen amount to ^305 ; the Presbytery
of Stirling sends ^147, that of Annan ^40; East and
West Lothian contribute ^50 each, and the congregations
in Perthshire and Dumfriesshire are not remiss.

Later than this, presbyteries, parishes, and congrega-
tions continued their isolated efforts, but as the Auxiliary
system spread, these gradually became part of the regular
organisation. The earliest of the Scottish Auxiliaries —
the Edinburgh Bible Society, the Scottish Bible Society,
and the East Lothian Bible Society — were established in
1809. In 1810 the West Lothian was formed. In 1811
institutions were founded at Aberdeen (2), Arbroath,
Brechin, Dumfries, Dundee, Forfar, Glasgow,1 and

1 In the address issued by the Glasgow Society on its formation, it was stated that
as soon as the establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society was known in
Glasgow, Mr David Dale presented "a subscription worthy of his usual benevolence,"
and enlisted the interest of his friends, so that in 1805 a regular Auxiliary was
formed. " In this way Mr Dale naturally came to be recognised by the British and
Foreign Bible Society as their treasurer and general agent for Glasgow and the West
of Scotland." For some time after his death meetings of the Auxiliary were regularly
held, but on the inception of larger schemes of co-operation this was discontinued, not
without reluctance on the part of several members. There was never any formal
dissolution, and "the Glasgow Auxiliary Bible Society may therefore be justly

96 THE BIBLE CAUSE IN SCOTLAND [l8o4-

Montrose. Four Auxiliaries were added in 1812 ; twelve
in 1813; eight in 1814; nine, including New Lanark,1 in
1815; and one in 1816. In all forty-seven Auxiliaries
sprang up, and, as has been said, contributed during the
period no less than ,£34,804 to the support of the Society.

The most noteworthy feature of these northern Auxiliaries
was the freedom of action, the right of independent initiative,
which at least several of them reserved in their constitutions.
This peculiarity may have been due to the national
temperament ; or the distance from London and the length
of time required to communicate with the Secretaries and
Committee may have appeared to render a certain latitude
expedient. In the case of Edinburgh it is distinctly pro-
vided that the object shall be the same as that of the
British and Foreign Bible Society, and that it shall
"act in concert with it, or separately, as circumstances
shall require." A similar liberty, as already observed,
was reserved by the Greenock and Port-Glasgow Associa-
tions ; and the West Lothian organisation, while devoting
the chief part of its funds to the British and Foreign
Bible Society, exercised the right of sending assistance to
Ireland. An incident, of some interest in itself as showing
the condition of certain parts of the North of England,
will best illustrate the special character of the Scottish
Auxiliaries, which indeed took up the position of sister
Bible Societies rather than that of Auxiliaries in the normal
acceptation of the name.

An appeal of some urgency was made to the Edinburgh

considered as the revival on a large scale of an institution which formerly existed,
and which, from the date of its commencement, July 1805, appears to have been the
first society of the kind in the kingdom."

1 New Lanark, a mile from the old "royal burgh," was the scene of Robert
Owen's remarkable experiment in practical socialism, in which unhappily he took no
account of the enduring verities of religion. In 1800 he bought the great cotton
mills from David Dale, whose daughter he married ; and he converted the population
of 4000 hands into a model community, in whose progress even royal dukes took a
deep interest. It is strange that, in his old age, the man who could not assent to the
tenets of Christianity accepted the so-called evidence of spiritualism as proof of the
existence of God and of personal immortality.

,817] THE EDINBURGH BIBLE SOCIETY 97

Bible Society by the Sunderland Auxiliary. It received
prompt attention. " It was not imagined," says the Report,
"that in such a district of country there were to be found
25,000 people who are not in the habit of attending any
place of worship ; and that among five hundred vessels
trading from that port but a few were furnished with a
single Bible." Aware, however, that this Auxiliary, "both
by its constitution and local situation, came more immedi-
ately under the care of the parent institution," the
Edinburgh committee wrote to London respecting this
melancholy state of things, and in the meantime, as the
London stock of pocket Bibles was exhausted, sent to
Sunderland a supply of the Edinburgh edition.

It is not to be supposed that in emphasising this
characteristic of the Scottish societies — and in view of
events in later years it is worthy of special attention —
any suggestion of coldness, rivalry, or unfriendliness is
involved. On the contrary, the most loyal spirit of co-
operation was maintained. But let the Edinburgh Bible
Society give expression to its sentiments in its own
words: — "Our connection, as a society, with the British
and Foreign Bible Society, has been a source of continued
satisfaction. Unconscious of earning such claims to esteem
as they have expressed, your committee have only to wish
that they had been enabled to contribute more plentifully
to their immense and very numerous undertakings.
During the foregoing year (1810-11) the sum of ^"700 has
been remitted to the parent institution, making a total of
^1500 since the commencement of your society."

If the standing taken by the Scottish societies be im-
portant enough to notice, scarcely less attention should be
given to the manner in which two of the most powerful
adapted the Auxiliary system to their own circumstances.
By 1816 the Glasgow Bible Society had grouped about
itself no fewer than thirty-one Branches and Associations,

VOLt I. G

g8 THE BIBLE CAUSE IN SCOTLAND [l8o4.

some in the immediate neighbourhood, others as far away
as Alexandria, Helensburgh, Strathblane, Kirkintilloch and
Saltcoats. In the same year the Edinburgh Society could
boast of twenty-two Associations "in connection," and
forty Auxiliaries ; and the remoteness of several of the
latter may serve to suggest the range of influence enjoyed
by the central organisation — the Shetland (in those days
preferably the Zetland) Isles, the Orkneys, Nairnshire,
Speyside and Avonside, Fort William, Oban on the west,
St Andrews on the east, Kelso, Selkirk, Teviotdale, and
Wigtown. Roughly speaking, the Edinburgh Auxiliary
was already the national society of Scotland.

The view which it took of its responsibilities was in
keeping with its character. Local works of mercy were at
once attended to. The gaols, the hospitals, the infirmaries,
the poor, the widows and children of soldiers were provided
with the Scriptures. The Danish, French, and Dutch
prisoners of war at Greenlaw and Dumfries were visited,
and supplied with Testaments in their own tongues.
Among the five or six hundred Danes a single copy of
the Bible was found — "saved out of many other things
which I have lost," said the owner. Nor was the shipping
in the Water o' Leith overlooked. The crews, it was noted,
included mariners of five nationalities. "A most surpris-
ing and animating symptom," the Edinburgh committee
thought it, — "that the zeal to circulate and the anxiety
to receive the sacred volume seem to have commenced at
the same period, and they increase in similar proportion."
Their work in the Highlands has already been referred to.
To Ireland "they considered themselves called upon to
pay particular attention," and during the first two years of
their existence they voted ^500 in aid of the Hibernian
Bible Society. They contributed ;£ioo towards the expense
of printing the Scriptures for Iceland ; ^100 to assist the
circulation of the Word among the poor of Sweden ; ^"200

i8i7] ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 99

to further the Oriental translations in which the missionaries
were engaged at Serampore. At the close of 1813-14 they
reported total contributions from all parts of the country
to the amount of ^1731 — " collected in a great measure
by means of small weekly contributions of one penny."

With one more detail, interesting as an example of the
unsectarian spirit which actuated the operations of the
Bible Society, this chapter may be brought to a close. On
the application of the Rev. A. Scott, a Roman Catholic
priest in Glasgow, 250 Bibles and 500 Testaments were
sent to the Glasgow Bible Society for distribution in
Roman Catholic schools. No other course could have been
taken by a Society founded on that love which shall abide
when the confessions of Churches and the prejudices of
denominations shall have shared the evanescence of the
fallen leaf and the dissolving cloud.

CHAPTER VII

THE WORK IN WALES AND IRELAND

IT is now time to turn to the innumerable operations and
the far-reaching projects which absorbed the energies of
the Committee of the Bible Society. Unhappily, the
chronicler is constrained to treat in sequence events and
transactions which in actual occurrence were synchronous
and not unfrequently intermingled. The impression of
alertness, versatility, multiplicity of affairs, which must have
been the strongest impression made on a contemporary, is
inevitably lost — at least for the moment. Still, it may be
hoped that compensation will be found in the lucidity and
cumulative effect which belong to a narrative in sequence.

By way of introduction it may be well to premise the
following particulars as briefly as may be : —

1805-6. Two large impressions of the English New
Testament, printed for the Society, were already in circula-
tion, and an ample edition of the Bible was in the press.
For the accommodation of the Germans in this country 1000
Bibles and 2000 Testaments had been ordered from
Nuremberg and Halle ; and orders had been placed for 300
French Testaments to be sent to Jersey, where, in con-
sequence of the war having suspended all communication
with Holland and other parts whence the Scriptures were ob-
tained, the Word of Life had become so scarce that " I have
known," wrote an islander, "old, second-hand family Bibles
sell at £2 and ^4 — which none but the rich can afford."

As the dearth of the Scriptures in Wales was the immediate
100

iso4-isi7] EDITIONS IN VARIOUS TONGUES 101

cause of the establishment of the Society, the Committee
were specially concerned that quick and abundant provision
should be made for the wants of the Principality. Their
efforts to procure an immediate temporary supply had,
however, proved unsuccessful ; and unavoidable con-
tingencies retarded the completion of their own editions.
Nevertheless, in July, 1806, the distribution of 10,000 copies
of the New Testament began, and 20,000 copies of the
Welsh Bible were in an advanced state of preparation.

Large editions of the Scriptures in Gaelic, as we have
narrated in the last chapter, were also in the press.

1806-7. An edition of 3000 Spanish Testaments was
passing through the hands of the printer.

Although two editions of the English Bible had been
issued, and several impressions of the New Testament put
in circulation, the supply fell so far short of the demand
that more adequate arrangements were concerted with the
Cambridge University Press to enable the Society to meet
all requirements.

The question of an Arabic Bible was under consideration,
and a proposal to assist in providing portions of the
Scriptures in Kalmuk was receiving attention.

1807-8. The Welsh and Gaelic Bibles had been com-
pleted ; the project of an edition of the New Testament in
Modern Greek was under consideration ; inquiries were
being made as to the need of a Manx version, and grave
doubts were entertained as to the utility of an edition of the
Scriptures in Irish.

Incidentally it may be noted that by this time business
transactions had become so numerous and weighty as to
exceed the powers of the Society's collector and accountant,
who had been in charge of the depot, and the services of a
bookseller were engaged to expedite the handling of stock
and the execution of orders.

1808-9. The New Testament in Spanish, Portuguese,

102 THE WORK IN WALES AND IRELAND [1804-

and Italian had been issued in editions of 5000 copies each,
at an aggregate cost of ^1192. In the press were similar
editions in Dutch and Danish (at a cost of ^573) ; and
^1350 was allocated for the production of 5000 copies of
the New Testament in Modern Greek with the Ancient
Greek text in parallel columns.

1809-10. The New Testament in Dutch and Danish was
in circulation, and the Modern Greek was nearly ready.

The Gospel of St John was printed in Eskimo, and it was
arranged that it should be followed by the Gospel of St Luke.

After mature deliberation the Committee decided to print
2000 copies of the New Testament in Irish.

i8io-n. The New Testament versions in Modern and
Ancient Greek, in Irish, and in Manx, were in circulation ;
the stereotype French Bible had been nearly completed ;
a large impression of the Dutch Bible was in the press, and
a stereotype edition of the Italian New Testament and 5000
copies of the German were in progress.

Stimulated by the representations of the Edinburgh Bible
Society, the Committee decided to produce an Ethiopic
version of the Psalms, for circulation in Abyssinia.

1811-12. A supply of New Testaments in Polish was
obtained by purchase for the benefit of the Poles in this
country.

The demands for Scriptures made by the Auxiliary
Societies had grown to such magnitude that the resources of
the Society were found to be inadequate. To supplement
the production of the two Universities the Committee
secured the assistance of Messrs Eyre and Strahan, the
King's Printers ; and even with their co-operation the
work of supply remained an almost overwhelming labour.

1813-14. Among important undertakings in the press
were the New Testament in Syriac, under the super-
vision of Dr Claudius Buchanan, and the Psalms and
the Gospels of St Matthew and St John in Ethiopic.

OLD BIBLE HOUSE, IO EARL STREET.

[To face f. 102.

i8i7]

103

1814-15. The Committee resolved to print without delay
the entire Bible in Irish.

1815-16. Up to this date the Society had possessed no
local habitation of its own. The Library and Depot had
been in one place, the Accountant's Office in another, and
the Committee Room in a third. The inconvenience and
disadvantage of such an arrangement, together with the
lack of any place of common resort, had been so severely
felt that it was considered an absolute necessity to unite
all departments under one roof. Commodious premises at
10 Earl Street were acquired on satisfactory terms from
Mr Enderby,1 and it was found that the immediate expense
involved would be covered by the annual saving which
would be made on the existing system.

Up to 30th June 1817, the versions of the Scriptures
printed for the Society formed a gross total of 816,278
Bibles, 986,883 Testaments, and 5100 Portions, in eighteen
different languages : —

Bibles.

Testaments.

Bibles.

Testaments.

English

709,042

600,695

German .

8,000

I3,OOO

Welsh

52,297

9I,l88

Greek, Modern

IO,OOO

Gaelic

22,000

2O,OOO

Greek, Ancient

Irish .

5,000

10,750

and Modern

5,000

Manx

2,250

Arabic .

1.439

French

13,000

79,000

Syriac

...

6,OOO

Spanish

...

30,000

Eskimo, Gospels

Portuguese

20,000

and Acts

IjOOO

Italian

14,000

Mohawk, Gospel

Dutch

5,000

15,000

of St John

2,OOO

Danish

500

10,000

Ethiopic, Psalter

2,100

1 The Society took possession of 10 Earl Street on the 24th June 1816. The
house was purchased at a cost of ^5400, and the addition of a warehouse and other
improvements raised the total expense to about ^12,000. For particulars as to the
site see Appendix III. It is interesting to learn that Miss Enderby, who was born
at 10 Earl Street before it passed into the possession of the Society, is still alive.
At the time of the purchase there was in the house " a curious four-post bedstead,
with carved and painted ornaments, and the following inscription in capitals at its
head : — ' Henri, by the Grace of God, Kynge of Englonde and of Fraunce, Lorde
of Irelonde, Defendour of the Faythe, and Supreme Heade of the Churche of all
Englande. An. Dni. M. ccccc. xxxix.' Below the inscription, on each side, is
the King's motto ' Dieu et mon Droit,' with the initials of Henry and his royal
consort, Anne Boleyn." Hughson, Walks through London (1817), vol. i. p. 148.

104 THE WORK IN WALES AND IRELAND

An equipment so extensive and so various was in itself
no inconsiderable work to accomplish : let us now survey
the purposes to which it was applied.

It was a memorable day in July 1806 which brought
the new supply of the Scriptures to Wales, and at least
one striking account has been preserved of the manner
in which they were received. When the news arrived at
Bala of the cart carrying the first precious load, "the
Welsh peasants," writes an eye-witness, "went out to
meet it, welcomed it as the Israelites did the Ark of
old, drew it into the town, and eagerly bore off every
copy as rapidly as they could be dispersed."1 Young
people could be seen reading the books late in the
summer twilight, and when night had fallen they still
turned the pages by the glimmer of dim lamp or rush-
light. In the morning labourers carried them afield, that
they might turn to them in their intervals of rest. As
there were Welsh men and women in many English
towns, it was made known that Welsh ministers, whether
they were subscribers to the Society or not, might have
the privilege of providing for their congregations at the
reduced rates.

Two years later another effort was made to bring the
Word of Life within reach of the poorest in the Principality,
and 20,000 Bibles and 30,000 Testaments were circulated
at a loss to the Society of £1896. In the English portion
of South Wales 200 Bibles and 200 Testaments were
distributed among the poor as time passed on, and in
1812-13, as a general desire had been expressed for a Bible
in large type, the Committee decided to produce an edition
similar to the largest English octavo.

In the meanwhile Auxiliaries and Associations had been
springing up in all directions ; and the generous support

1 A copy from this consignment was given by Mr Charles to his baby grandson,
who became President of Trevecca College, South Wales, and who related the
incident at one of the Jubilee meetings of the Society.

,817] THE CHANNEL AND SCILLY ISLES 105

which they contributed to the Society has already been
set forth.

The first gift to Jersey was followed by others ; Guernsey,
Alderney, and Sark were not forgotten, and a considerable
consignment was made to the Scilly Isles, that strange
and storied cluster of rocks, which, if the surmises of the
geologist be true, is all that survives of the lost realm of
Lyonnesse. In those days the hundred peaks of granite
had not yet been laid out in flower-fields, and the islanders
maintained themselves by fishing, kelp-burning, and
pilotage. In every direction, the exertions of the Society
were warmly appreciated. "When I gave out in the
pulpit," wrote a minister in Jersey in 1809, "that there
was a probability that we should be supplied with the
whole Bible, you could see the silent tears of joy fall from
many at the thought that one day they would be possessors
of the invaluable treasure. Many are anxiously waiting
for the completion of the Old Testament in French. When
it is finished, oh ! pray do not forget Jersey." Most of the
families in the island, it was added, were descended from
French refugees, who had escaped from the religious persecu-
tions. The writer of the letter had married a devout English
girl, who in 1807 or 1808 established a Ladies' Bible
Association, one of the earliest of these institutions. An
Auxiliary was founded in Guernsey in 1812, and another
in Jersey in the following year. The Japanese lily1 washed
up from a lost East Indiaman on the shores of Guernsey
might well have symbolised the advent of the Scriptures,
which, in days of storm and wreck, a breath of heaven
had cast on the islands, a sure pledge of the Land of
the Morning.

English Bibles and Testaments were sent to the Isle

1 The Amaryllis Samiensis, or Guernsey Lily, stranded from a wreck about the
year 1630.

io6 THE WORK IN WALES AND IRELAND [1804-

of Man in 1808 ; but the English tongue had not yet
acquired the ascendency which it attained twenty years
later, and an edition of the Manx version of the New
Testament was printed in 1810. The Bishop of Sodor
and Man interested himself in the work, collections were
made by the clergy in the island, and 1326 copies were
speedily ordered, and supplied at reduced rates. The
bars of the prison-house may be said to chequer the
opening pages of this version, for it was begun by Bishop
Wilson in collaboration with his Vicar-General, Dr Walker,
during their confinement in Castle Rushen in 1722. The
Bishop had been consecrated in 1698, and applied himself
vigorously to the moral and religious improvement of his
diocese ; but his views of discipline, too inflexible and too
harshly peremptory even for that stern time,1 brought him
into conflict with the civil ppwer. The Bishop had, for
some grave breach of ecclesiastical law, suspended Arch-
deacon Horrobin, chaplain to the Governor, to whom the
Archdeacon appealed, instead of referring his case to the
Metropolitan at York. The Governor, who had long been
hostile to the prelate, imposed on him a fine of ^50, and
one of ^20 each on his two Vicars-General, who had taken
official part in the suspension. They refused to pay the
fine, and were arrested and conveyed to Castle Rushen ;
but the people, who loved their stern spiritual father, rose
in angry tumult. Great crowds threatened the castle, and
it was only on the interposition of the Bishop himself, who
addressed them from the wall and from his grated windows,
that they were restrained from pulling down Governor
Home's house.

The translation of the New Testament during their
two months of imprisonment helped to alleviate the

1 The late Rev. T. E. Brown, the author of Foe's ' le Yarns, Aber Stations, etc.,
has preserved in a noble poem the memory of a ghastly example of the disciplinary
rigour of the Church during the episcopate of this pious and beloved but too uncom-
promising prelate. See The Collected Poems, "Catherine Kinrade,'' p. 47.

i8i7] THE MANX BIBLE 107

discomforts of the small dark cell, the cold and damp-
ness of which brought on a disorder which partially
disabled the Bishop's right hand for the rest of his long
life.1 On appeal to the King, the proceedings of the
Governor were condemned and reversed, and the prison
doors were thrown open ; but the expenses of the trial are
said to have been so heavy that the estate of the Bishop
was permanently impoverished. Dr Walker's version of
St Matthew was printed at the Bishop's cost in 1748.
When the venerable prelate died in 1755, at the age of
ninety - three, after an episcopate of nearly sixty years,
the other Gospels and the Acts were ready for the press.
His successor, Bishop Hildesley, who declared his "whole
heart set on the Manx translation," had the New
Testament completed ; and it was published, chiefly
through the aid of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, in 1767. The "vast eagerness and joy"
with which it was received in the island may be gathered
from the exclamation of a poor Manx woman on hearing
her son read a chapter for the first time — "We have sat in
darkness until now ! "

Bishop Hildesley superintended the translation of the
Old Testament, half of which nearly perished in a storm
when Dr Moore and Dr Kelly were on their way with it
to Whitehaven, where it was to be printed. The vessel
was wrecked, and the MS., one of the few things saved,
was preserved by being held for five hours above the fury

1 Another prisoner in the Isle of Man — long before the days of Bishop Wilson —
was the ill-starred Duchess of Gloucester, of whom we caught a glimpse in our first
chapter, doing penance in a white sheet, with a lighted taper in her hand, on Old
Swan Stairs. She was confined for some time at Castle Rushen, and then transferred
to the old Danish stronghold at Peel, whence after seven years spent in a deep vault,
she escaped, but was recaptured, and, more vigilantly guarded in her living tomb,
lingered out another seven years, and was released by death in 1454.

2 It is contended by the learned that the " Three Legs" of Man, like the Tri-
skelion of Sicily, the modern Buddhist Prayer-Wheel and the ancient Swastika,
is an emblem of the vast sunny swing of the heaven, and dates from the antique
days of elemental worship (Simpson, The Buddhist Prayer-Wheel). And yet, "we
have sat in darkness until now " !

io8 THE WORK IN WALES AND IRELAND ti8o4-

of the breaking seas. The last proof-sheets were placed
in the Bishop's hands on the 28th November 1772, and,
surrounded by his rejoicing family, he literally sang the
Nunc Dimittis. Three days later he was struck down by
apoplexy, and on the 7th December his spirit passed to its
rest. "His ardent love and concern for the good of his
spiritual charge he carried with him to the grave, and
even into the grave, as he had by his will directed that
the funeral office and sermon should be all in Manx,
which was performed accordingly. Among other generous
bequests he left ^300 to the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge towards a future edition of the Manx
Bible, and in 1775 that society published an impression of
the whole Bible, and a separate edition of the New
Testament."1

This, then, was the memorable version which the Bible
Society produced in 1810. In 1815, about two years after
the formation of the Isle of Man Auxiliary, it was found
necessary to reprint 250 copies, and in 1819 an edition of
5000 passed through the press. The day of the Manx
tongue, however, was closing. In 1825 the Bishop intimated
that the islanders preferred the English text. In 1848 the
Committee sent 300 copies for the use of those who still
clung to the old speech, and a further supply was de-
spatched in the Society's Jubilee year ; but though the
Celtic was still in use, every one spoke English as
well. The native literature of Elian Vannin — the carvals
(carols) which Borrow speaks of as preserved in uncouth-
looking, smoke-stained volumes in low farmhouses and
cottages in mountain gills and glens — had lost its hold
on the heart of the people, and the Manx version has

1 The Gentleman s Magazine, July, August, September 1794 ; The Bible of Every
Land (Bagster), p. 167. Curiously enough, an edition of Bishop Wilson's Bible, in
3 vols. 410, was printed on paper, which, according to Hannah More, had been
specially made for a superior edition of Voltaire's works. The Voltaire project
failed, and the paper was bought and devoted to this better purpose. — Monthly
Extracts, 1848, August, p. 793.

i8i7] THE WORK BEGUN IN IRELAND 109

no longer a place among the numerous translations of the
Society.1

It will be within remembrance that immediately after
its establishment the Bible Society entered into communica-
tion with the Dublin Association for Promoting the Know-
ledge and Practice of the Christian Religion. In the course
of a cordial response the Association stated that since
their formation in 1792 up to date (October 1804) they had,
at the cost of ^2380, distributed 16,725 Bibles and 20,355
Testaments at reduced prices ; that the demand for the
Scriptures, which were bought up with great avidity, was
increasing at a rate that exceeded the resources of the
Association, and that they would gratefully receive any
assistance in furtherance of their work. As soon, therefore,
as the Society's edition of the New Testament had issued
from the press in 1805, facilities were offered to the
Association, and the Society began, through the medium
of individual agents and Sunday schools, that extensive
distribution among the poor of all denominations which
the condition of the country imperatively required. One
of the earliest grants was that of 1000 copies in sheets at
half the cost price for the benefit of Roman Catholic school
children. It was with satisfaction that the Committee
heard that one of the Roman Catholic bishops had, in a
pastoral letter, not only authorised but even recommended
the admission of the books into schools, and their circula-
tion among the laity, and that Roman Catholic as well as
Protestant children were attending the Sunday schools
which had been opened in various places.

In 1808 Mr Hughes, Mr Charles of Bala, Dr Bogue,

1 The version was still in use in 1872. "I heard many testimonies," wrote Mr
G. T. Edwards, the secretary of the Northern District, " as to the value of the Manx
Bible, several copies of which had been circulated during the year, though that
language is steadily on the decline " {Monthly Reporter, 1872, p. 443). The
depository sale-list for 1875 is the last in which the Manx Scriptures appear among
the Society's publications,

no THE WORK IN WALES AND IRELAND [l8o4-

and Mr Samuel Mills made a tour in Ireland, and took
with them 1000 New Testaments in English for distribution.
Mr Charles observed that the poor in their rude huts
were very civil and responsive, but wholly ignorant of the
Word of God. Religion, he felt, could not be spread
among the people without Bibles, without preaching in
the native tongue, and without schools in which the
children could be taught to read Irish. " We have not
met," he wrote, "a single person who could read Irish,
and there are no elementary books in the language.
Itinerant schools " — and his own experience in Wales
enabled him to form a judgment — " would do wonders
here." The accuracy of this opinion was in a measure
confirmed by the statement of a clergyman in the South
of Ireland, who said that the common people who read at
all read English only ; even if they could have read
Irish, there was such a difference between the spoken
dialect and the literary diction, that the latter would have
been unintelligible to them. From these premises he
argued that there was no occasion for an Erse version.
Mr Charles's view was the larger and the more just ;
and indeed the time was not now remote when all the
means of improvement which he advocated came into
operation, and no small part of the beneficent result
is due to the visit of the Apostle of Bala and the enter-
prising Secretary of the Bible Society.

All through the period on which we are now engaged
the Committee were sedulous in their efforts to enlighten
every dark place, and to plant the rose in the desert. The
people were in a miserably distressed condition. By the
end of 1804 the Irish National Debt had, in consequence
of the Union, risen to fifty-three millions — a leap of six
and twenty millions in four years ; and in the same time,
notwithstanding the increase of population, the net produce
of the revenue had fallen. The prosperity of the towns

,8i7] THE HIBERNIAN BIBLE SOCIETY in

began to flag and languish, and Dublin, which the removal
of the Parliament had practically ruined, sank in a few
years to the rank of a second-rate provincial city. Agri-
culture had been stimulated by the Napoleonic wars, but
with the peace there came a disastrous decline in agri-
cultural prices, for Ireland had practically no trade, and
could not, like England, counterbalance the losses which
the land-interest sustained by the advantages which the
trade-interest derived from the fall in values. In 1814
and 1815 the pinch of poverty was intensified by the failure
of the potato crop. This commercial impoverishment ex-
plains the peculiar relations which existed between the
Bible Society and its Irish Auxiliaries, and it throws light
on the exceptional distributions made through other
agencies.

In the meanwhile the unorganised efforts of the Committee,
together with their intercourse with the Dublin Associa-
tion for promoting the Christian Religion, had led to the
establishment of a Bible Society on the distinctive principles
of the parent institution. The Dublin Bible Society, or
the Hibernian, as it was immediately afterwards named,
was founded in 1806, and was accorded the privilege of
obtaining the Scriptures at the cost of production. In
the following year its funds were aided by a grant of
;£ioo, and the Cork Bible Society, which was now started,
was similarly assisted, and was placed, with the Bible
Committee of the Synod of Ulster, on the same footing
as the Hibernian Bible Society.

The Society's relations with the Irish Auxiliaries will,
however, be viewed with a clearness the more comprehensive
if the latter are grouped together, and if we add to them
the London Hibernian Society, which was formed in 1806
for establishing schools and circulating the Holy Scriptures
in Ireland, and which, thirteen years later, had 529 schools
and 58,202 scholars under its care.

ii2 THE WORK IN WALES AND IRELAND [1804-
THE IRISH AUXILIARIES UP TO 1816-17.

THE HIBERNIAN BIBLE SOCIETY, with fifty-seven Branches.

Patron — His Grace the Lord Primate.

President — The Archbishop of Dublin.

Vice- Presidents — The Earl of Belvidere, the Earl of Charlemont,
Viscount Northland, Viscount Bernard, the Bishops of Kildare,
Deny, Limerick, Cork and Down, the Provost of Trinity
College.

Year of
Formation.

Total Subscription to the
British and Foreign Bible
Society.

Total Grants in aid from
the British and Foreign
Bible Society.

Total Donations from the
British and Foreign Bible
Society.

1806

,£6,7lS

payment for
Scriptures.

,£1,100
,£1,306, balance of
payment due re-
mitted.

300 Bibles^

"'•rSa. \-M*

ments. J

1807

1807

1812

1813

1816

1806

THE CORK BIBLE SOCIETY.
President — The Bishop of Cork.

,£2,269
payment for
Scriptures.

^200

BIBLE COMMITTEE OF THE SYNOD OF ULSTER.
I I >£i°° I

DERRY BIBLE SOCIETY, with nine Branches.
President — The Bishop of Deny.

500 Bibles^
2,500 Tes- \ =
tamentsj

NEW Ross BIBLE SOCIETY.

YOUGHAL BIBLE SOCIETY.

250 Bibles}
1,000 Tes- J- =
tamentsl

payment for
Scriptures.

THE HIBERNIAN SOCIETY IN LONDON.

Provided with 2,650 Bibles and 13,670 Testa-
ments for the Schools in Ireland at a
loss to the Society of .

ig,7] GROWTH OF THE IRISH AUXILIARIES 113

Apart from the ^9192 which the Auxiliaries themselves
expended on the Scriptures, the Society devoted ,£8514 to
Ireland in grants and donations during this period, and
threw into circulation at least 8154 Bibles and 48,503
Testaments.1

In connection with the Hibernian Bible Society, it may
be noted that by the beginning of 1811 it had established
Branches in Belfast, Limerick, Dungannon, New Ross,
Armagh, Tullamore, and Tuam ; and its directors had
gratefully stated that but for the liberality of the parent
Society, they would have been obliged to put a stop to their
operations in face of the overwhelming demand made upon
them. In the course of that year a Ladies' Auxiliary,
formed under the patronage of Viscountess Lorton, the
Countesses of Westmeath, Meath, and Leitrim, Viscountess
Lifford, and other ladies of rank, had come to its assistance.
In 1813-1814 the Hibernian Bible Society had increased the
number of its Branches to fifty-three. Its circulation for
the year was 50,000 Bibles and Testaments ; it had secured
depots for the sale of the Scriptures in one hundred towns
in Ireland,2 and it expressed the hope that ere long it would
be in a position to contribute assistance towards the general
purposes of the Bible Society. In the following year it
had established Auxiliaries in the King's County and
the counties of Kildare, Kerry, and Galway, where they
were particularly needed, and it had adopted with success
the plan of Associations. The annual circulation had now
reached between 80,000 and 90,000 volumes — a total of
nearly 200,000 since its foundation.

To the Cork Bible Society considerable opposition was
made on the ground that it would become subservient to
the interests of a party. Happily these prejudices and

1 The number of books was certainly larger, as occasionally in the early grant-
schedules the money value is entered without details.

2 At the anniversary meeting of the Bible Society in 1855 the Bishop of Meath
stated that in 1805 there were not twelve places in Ireland besides Dublin in which
the Bible could be purchased. — Monthly Extracts, 1855, p. 529.

VOL. I. H

ii4 THE WORK IN WALES AND IRELAND

forebodings were dispelled, and within three years it had
doubled its original list of subscribers, and was pursuing
a course of ever-increasing usefulness.

In the old hill town of Derry, whose grey walls are
still haunted by the memory of the famous siege, the
Scriptures sent by the Society were bought with avidity.
They were trying times for the poor, but the hunger for
the Bread of Life was scarcely less keen than that for
"wretched meat and drink." "We will buy a little less
meal, and take home the Word of God with us ; we
may never get Testaments for yd. each again." Even
the beggars became purchasers. "I would feel less,"
said one poor blind creature with five children, "knowing
my child to be hungry, than to have it living without
the Word of God." In less than a fortnight 1525 copies
were disposed of, and about 200 were bought by Roman
Catholics.

But even more interesting are the glimpses to be obtained
from the report of the committee of the Sligo Branch of the
Hibernian Bible Society. As early as 1815 the London
Hibernian Society had wrought a wonderful change by
the work of the schools which it had opened, and which
now had in Sligo a roll of 17,000 children. "By means
of these schools," the Report states, "the Word of God
has forced its way into the most unenlightened parts of
your country. Villages, glens, and mountains, denied by
nature the cheering beams of the sun, have received ample
compensation in having their hitherto unpierced clouds of
ignorance dispelled by the rays of the Gospel. The Bible
has now become the class-book of the hedge-school, and
supplanted those foolish legends which poisoned the minds
of youth." In remote villages too we come across scenes
similar to those which we beheld in the Scottish straths :
numbers of people meet in the evening, not for amuse-
ment, drunkenness, or gaming, "or to enter into illegal

,8i7] THE IRISH VERSION 115

combinations and dangerous conspiracies, but to have the
sacred volume read aloud to them."

The Romish priesthood present themselves in an engag-
ing light. An inspector of schools tells how he was invited
to take a seat near the altar after Mass, and to lend the priest
his Irish Testament. The priest read the chapter from which
the Gospel for the day had been taken, and then addressed
his flock: "You have now heard in a language you all
understand what I before read in the Mass, in your hear-
ing, in a language you did not understand ; and you all
seem to be highly pleased with what I have read (Matthew
xxiv.). Now this is one of the good books taught in the
free school opened for the instruction of your children in
this chapel, and supported, free of expense to you, by
good people in England. The English books also pro-
vided by the society for your children are good — very
good. One of them, the Testament, is the Word of God ;
and if you wish to know the difference between the Catholic
Testament and the English and Irish Testaments provided
by the society, it is even the same as if I should say
'Four and two makes six,' and you should say, 'Two and
four makes six ' — which you all know is the same in the end.
I therefore not only permit these schools, but command
you all to send your children to them, and to be thankful ;
and I shall be much displeased with the man who neglects
such a blessing provided for his family."

At this date, it will be noticed, the Irish version of
the New Testament was in circulation. After a discussion
alternately suspended and renewed during five years, and
a voluminous correspondence with learned and pious men
capable of forming a trustworthy opinion on the subject,
the Society decided in 1809 to print in Roman characters
an edition of the New Testament in the Erse dialect of that
ancient Aryan tongue which, " had it not been for Aughrim,
the Boyne, and the penal laws, would undoubtedly now

ii6 THE WORK IN WALES AND IRELAND [l8o4-

be the language of all Ireland," and which, with the
exception of Greek, "has left the longest, most luminous,
and most consecutive literary track behind it of any of the
vernacular tongues of Europe."1 Irish was still spoken
over nearly the whole of Ireland, and indeed down to
the Great Famine it was the home speech of half the
population. The first 2000 copies of the Testament were
distributed so quickly as to necessitate an edition of 3000
in 1813, another of 2500 in 1816, and a fourth of 3000 in
1817. In the last of these years 5000 copies of the whole
Irish Bible were issued. The text was that of the good
Bishop Bedell, and we may pause at this point to touch
on the story of the Irish translations.

The earliest Irish version of which there is any certain
evidence was that of a New Testament belonging to, and
not improbably translated by, Richard Fitzralph, Bishop of
Armagh in 1347, who, however, was compelled by the
troubles of his times to conceal the volume.2 He enclosed
it within one of the walls of his Cathedral, with an inscrip-
tion on the last page, "When this book is found truth
will be revealed to the world or Christ will shortly
appear " ; and while^ the Cathedral was being repaired,
about I53O,3 it was discovered in its hiding-place. All
trace of it, however, was afterwards lost.

Another translation was made in the last quarter of the
sixteenth century, but its history is lost in obscurity.
A third, that of William Daniel, Archbishop of Tuam,
was completed, and 500 copies, in folio and in the Erse
character, were published in 1602. It was not till 1681
that a second edition (750 copies in quarto) was printed,
through the munificence of the Hon. Robert Boyle, son

1 Hyde, The Story of Early Gaelic Literature, p. 1 6.

- The Bible of Every Land (Bagster), p. 162.

3 The prophecy was fairly well realised. In 1529 the name of " Protetsant" was
originated at the Diet of Spires, and in 1530 the Confession of Augsburg was
formulated. Michelet, The Life of Luther (Eng. Trans.), pp. 217, 225.

i8i7] THE GOOD BISHOP BEDELL 117

of the great Earl of Cork, a friend of three English Kings,
founder of the Boyle Lectureship, and not less distinguished
by his genius than by his zealous defence and propaga-
tion of Christianity.

Here we leave for a moment the record of the New
Testament, and turn to that of the Old, no portion of
which existed in Irish until the saintly Bishop Bedell,
appointed to the see of Kilmore and Ardagh in 1629, not
only undertook the superintendence and cost of a transla-
tion, but required his clergy, as a preliminary measure,
to establish schools in every parish. Observing with much
regret that England had all along neglected the Irish,
as a nation not only conquered but undisciplinable, and
believing that the true interest of England was to gain
the Irish to the knowledge of religion, and through that
knowledge to the love of England, he learned their language,
distributed a short catechism in English and Erse, "to
the great joy of many of the Irish, who seemed to be
hungering and thirsting after righteousness," founded bene-
fices for several of the priests whom he had converted, and
occupied himself daily with comparing the Irish translation
with the Hebrew, the Septuagint, and the Italian version
of his friend Diodati, "with so much industry that in a
very few years he finished the translation and resolved to
set about the printing of it."1 Before he had time to begin,
the Rebellion broke out, his palace was attacked, he and
his family were taken prisoners, and in 1642 he died at
the house of his friend, Dennis O'Sheridan.

According to a recent Irish writer, Bishop Bedell broke
the unwritten compact to extinguish the Irish tongue,
which the English Government made with the bishops
and clergy whom they placed in the sees and dioceses
throughout Ireland. But "he reaped his reward in the
undying gratitude of the Irish, and the equally bitter

1 Burnet, Life of W. Bedell, Bishop of Killmore.

ii8 WORK IN WALES AND IRELAND [1804-1817

animosity of his own colleagues. Ussher, then Primate,
in answer to a pathetic letter of Bedell's asking what
were the charges against him, said in his reply : 4 The
course which you took with the Papists was generally
cried out against, neither do I remember in all my life
that anything was done here by any of us at which the
professors of the Gospel did take more offence, or by
which the adversaries were more confirmed in their super-
stitions and idolatry, whereas I wish you had advised
with your brethren before you would aventure to pull
down that which they had been so long a-building,'
meaning the discrediting and destruction of the Irish
language. The Irish, however, did not forget the efforts
Bedell had made on behalf of their tongue, for having
taken him prisoner, they treated him with every courtesy
in their power, and when he died their troops fired a
volley over his grave, crying out, ' Requiescat ultimus
Anglorum^ while a priest who was present was heard to
exclaim with fervour, ' Sit aniina mea cum BedelloS"1

The MS. of Bedell's version was preserved, and in
1686, after careful revision, 500 copies, in two 4to
volumes, were printed, chiefly at the expense of Mr Boyle.
Of this edition, as we have seen, 200 copies were sent to
Scotland, for the benefit of the Highlanders. A second
edition, in Roman characters, and designed for the
Highlanders, was printed in 1690, under the supervision
of the same Rev. Robert Kirke of Aberfoyle, who two
years afterwards was spirited away by the fairies.2

More than a century elapsed before another attempt
was made to provide the Isle of the Saints with the
Scriptures in its native tongue. The work was then under-
taken by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

1 Hyde, A Literary History of Ireland, p. 619.

2 See chapter vi. p. 88 n.

CH APTE R VIII

THE ISLES OF THE SEA

THERE is an obliquity in human nature which often makes
it easier to assist the necessitous at a distance than to
relieve distress at our own door. This was not the sin
of the Bible Society. The Committee looked far afield,
it is true, but they did not neglect the opportunities which
lay to their hands, though, as the Auxiliaries and Associa-
tions multiplied, these last appropriated year by year more
and still more of the work locally. Soldiers and sailors,
foreign as well as British, fishermen, sea-fencibles, the
poor of all nationalities — in London mainly foreigners
and chiefly Germans — were offered the Word of God in
their own tongue. Among the poor alone the Scriptures
were distributed to an extent that involved what may
conveniently be termed a loss of about £1200. Among
foreign soldiers during the war,1 and foreign fishermen
and sailors afterwards, Scriptures to the value of ^536
were circulated. The amount expended on our own
soldiers and sailors, including 2300 Bibles and 3800
Testaments sent out to British prisoners of war in France,
was ,£1406. And here let it be noted that the initiative
was not invariably on the side of the Society. Early in

1 These included some thousands of the Hanoverian troops, who, when
Napoleon seized Hanover in 1803, passed over into England, and formed themselves
into " The King's German Legion," which afterwards did good service in Portugal,
Spain, Italy, France, and Germany itself. There were also the twelve hundred
Black Hussars (" Black Brunswickers"), with whom after the Battle of Wagram the
Duke of Brunswick dashed across the four hundred miles of country between Bohemia
and the mouth of the Weser, and reached England.

119

120 THE ISLES OF THE SEA [1804-

1815 a Marine Bible Society — the first of its kind — was
formed on board his ship by the commander of one of
the Government packets on the Falmouth station.

At no time perhaps in the history of this country was
there so pressing a need for the benevolence which spends
itself in works of mercy as in these years of which we are
now speaking. Let us recall for a moment the jails,
hulks, and convict prisons of the first two decades of
the nineteenth century. "The criminal laws were savage,
and they were administered in a spirit appropriately
relentless. . . . Our law recognised 223 capital offences,
and 165 of them bore no remoter date than the reign of
the Georges."1 Thanks to Sir Samuel Romilly, pocket-
picking ceased to be capital in 1808, and theft from
bleaching - grounds in 1811 ; but in three successive
endeavours — in 1813, 1816, and 1818 — he failed to restrict
capital punishment in cases of theft to a minimum value
of 55. As late as 1832 horse -stealing, cattle-stealing,
sheep-stealing, theft from a dwelling-house, and forgery
in general were all liable to death on the gallows. House-
breaking was struck out of the capital list in 1833 ;
returning from transportation before expiry of sentence
in 1834; sacrilege and letter-stealing in 1835.

One of the results of the truculence of the penal code
went far to defeat the very purpose of the law. Sentences
were so frequently commuted that they lost much of
their deterrent effect, and yet they were carried out often
enough to prove that the law was a reality.2 In 1805,
out of 350 persons sentenced to death, 10 were executed for
murder and 58 for other offences ; in 1815, of 553 sentenced,
15 were hanged for murder and 42 for other crimes.
In 1816 there were at one time 58 persons under sentence
of death, and one of them was a child of ten.

1 Mackenzie, The Nineteenth Century, book ii. chap. i.

2 Owen Pike, A History of Crime in England, vol. ii. chap. xii.

1817] THE HORRORS OF NEWGATE 121

In such a condition of legislative barbarity one cannot
be surprised either at the recklessness of the criminal or
at the horrors of his prison. In spite of Howard's improve-
ments, the jails and hulks were more like the Malebolge of
Dante's Inferno than the abode of men whose souls might
yet be saved. There was no occupation for the prisoners,
who spent their time in gambling and drinking, in telling
tales of villainy and debauchery, in planning new crimes.
In 1808 the number of women in the female wards of
Newgate was from 100 to 150, and the breadth allotted
to each in their sleeping-room was eighteen inches. When
Mrs Fry visited the prison in 1813 she found the women—
nearly 300, with their numerous children — crowded in four
rooms, comprising in the aggregate about 190 superficial
yards, ''without employment, and with no other super-
intendence than that given by a man and his son, who
had charge of them by night and by day." There — tried
and untried, misdemeanants and felons — they lived, washed,
cooked, and slept, without bedding, on the floor. "With
the proceeds of their clamorous begging they purchased
liquor from a regular tap in the prison. Beyond that
necessary for their safe custody, there was little restraint
over their communication with the world without." * Swear-
ing, gaming, fighting, singing, drinking, and dancing
and dressing up in men's clothes were the amusements
and occupations of the place.

The great "Stone Jug "had its chaplain, and a Parlia-
mentary report of 1814 describes his own view of the duties
attached to a charge from which he drew over ^300 a year :
" Beyond his attendance in chapel and on those who are
sentenced to death [he] feels but few duties to be attached
to his office. He knows nothing of the state of morals in
the prison ; he never sees any of the prisoners in private.
Though fourteen boys and girls, from nine to thirteen years

1 I Tare, The Gurneys of Earlhani, vol. i. p. 251.

122 THE ISLES OF THE SEA [l8o4-

old, were in Newgate in April last, he does not consider
attention to them a point of his duty. He never knows
that any have been sick till he gets a warning to attend their
funeral, and does not go to the Infirmary, for it is not in
his instructions."1

It was surely time that the truth of the Gospel should
illumine the dark wards of this Castle Perilous — that indeed
the mercy and compassion and hope of the Word of Life
should be so brought home to the hearts and consciences
of all men that the existence of such dungeons of infamy
should be tolerated no longer.2 In 1809 a special Sub-
Committee of the Bible Society was appointed to collect
information regarding the wants of prisons, workhouses,
and hospitals, and a correspondence was opened with the
sheriffs of counties, and the governors and chaplains of
various prisons.

But the exertions of the Society were not confined to
the hulks and jails in our midst. In the spring of 1787 a
fleet of eleven sail — a frigate, armed tender, three store-
ships, and six transports with 600 male and 250 female
convicts, left Portsmouth to form the settlement of Botany
Bay.3 The strong representations of William Wilberforce
and John Thornton had so far prevailed that the Govern-
ment had sent out a chaplain with them ; but six years
later, when the admiral of two Spanish discovery ships
touched at Sydney, there was no place of worship in the
settlement, a fact which drew from the Spanish chaplain
the remark that had the country been colonised by his nation,
there would have been a house of God erected before they
had reared one for man.

From 1808 onwards the Society availed themselves of

1 Knight, London, vol. v. p. 326.

2 The Christian heroism of Elizabeth Fry, seconded by the labours of her
brothers-in-law, Samuel Hoare and Fowell Buxton, led to the formation of the
Society for the Reformation of Prison Discipline, in 1816.

3 Dunmore Lang, New South Wales, vol. i. p. 14. As Botany Bay was found
to be an ineligible harbour, the settlement was formed at the head of Sydney Cove.

,8i7] CONVICTS AND PRISONERS OF WAR 123

every opportunity to provide the consolation of the Scriptures
for the unhappy creatures exiled to the Antipodes ; and who
can tell how many among the thousands1 thus reminded
of the sacrifice on Calvary for the sins of the world shared
the feelings of the convicts on board the Three Bees, bound
to Port Jackson, in November 1813? "Your gift," they
wrote, "gives a new object to our hopes. Convincing us
of the necessity of seeking the Kingdom of God, it assures
us that we 'in no wise are cast out.' We see that God is
with us ; you have put His candle in our hands ; ' it shineth
on our heads, and by His light we go through darkness.""2
During this first period the Society distributed among the
jails, hulks, convict-transports, penitentiaries, workhouses,
and hospitals over 3000 Bibles and 5000 Testaments, at a
cost of about ^"1300.

Perhaps even more noteworthy, not only on account of
its magnitude, but of its exceptional character and far-
reaching influence, was the work accomplished in connection
with the foreign prisoners of war — French, Spanish, Italian,
Dutch, Danish, Norwegian — confined or detained on parole
in all parts of the country. Between 1803 and 1814, of
French privateers alone, 440, with crews numbering 27,613
men, were captured.8 In 1805-1806 there were scarcely less
than 30,000 prisoners, and in 1811 the number had grown
to 47,600. The Government hardly knew what to do with
so many. At first they were drafted to the hulks in the
naval harbours, but as the war went on, the presence of so
formidable a force of trained fighting men in our ports
was considered a special danger in view of any attempt at

1 From 1787 to 1840, when transportation to this region ceased, the number
deported to New South Wales and Victoria amounted to 54,383, an average of
from 800 to 900 a year.

'2 Letter to Lord Teignmouth and the Committee, signed by 169 convicts
(Report, 1814, p. iii.). This voluntary letter, the surgeon of the Three Bees observed,
was proposed by a Roman Catholic who had never read the Holy Scriptures before
he went on board the ship, and was gratefully and anxiously signed by the prisoners
when they knew that the Bibles presented were not furnished by the Government,
but were the gift of the Society.

3 Norman, The Corsairs of France, p. 451.

i24 THE ISLES OF THE SEA [l8o4-

invasion. It was decided to send large contingents of them
inland. Specially built for them, on a granite waste
plunged in mist and gloom, rain and snow for half the
year,1 Dartmoor, with its seven blocks of stone buildings,
and the inscription Parcere Subjectis over its Cyclopean
gateway, was ready for occupation in March 1806, and
was speedily tenanted by captives, from 7000 to 10,000 at
a time. Many never left that bleak and treeless " Forest,"
but were laid to their rest in the French cemetery, where
one may still read, not without emotion, of the glory and
gladness of dying pro patria? Here, as at Greenlaw in
Berwickshire, and in the walled and palisaded casernes of
Norman Cross with its 6000 foreigners, the prisoners
beguiled their weariness and added to their resources by
making little ingenious trifles out of cardboard, wood, reeds,
and straw, and more than one handsome model of mighty
three-deckers, built out of dinner bones, is preserved in its
old glass case even to this day.

The first grant made to prisoners by the Society was
voted two days before Christmas in 1805. Immediate supplies
were obtained by purchase, but large editions of the French
New Testament and of the whole Bible were put to press ;
and thereafter, year by year, until the fall of Napoleon, large
sums were expended on the spiritual needs of these poor exiles.
The Scriptures were recognised by many of the prisoners as
"the only real consolation under their calamity." They were
received with thanks, with tears, with joy. The men were
often seen reading them against the bulwarks of their prison
ships or within the stone walls of their casernes ; and in
hospital the Word of Life cheered the last hours of the dying.

1 "For seven months in the year," wrote an angry M. Catel, " c'est tine vraie
Sibtrie, covered with melting snow. When the snows vanish the mists appear.
Conceive the tyranny of la perfide Albion in sending human beings to such a place ! "

- When the graveyard at Dartmoor was being altered and enlarged recently,
several graves were opened, and the coffins were discovered to be empty. Even
at Dartmoor love may have laughed at locksmiths. — Baring-Gould, A Book of the
West, vol. i. p. 211.

i8:7] -THE WORD SOWN IN FRANCE 125

Reading parties were formed, and there were but few per-
sons who exhibited indifference or contempt. Circulating
Scripture libraries were established in some instances ; in
others, according to circumstances, the volumes were lent
on hire, sold very cheap, or given away. And many were
willing to deny themselves even such cold comforts as they
had in order to obtain a copy. "Not my own," said one
poor fellow ; "I pay six rations per month for the use of it."
In a little while schools were started for the benefit of those
who could not read, and it was "pleasing to see many —
even old men with spectacles — who six months ago could
not read at all, now able to read the Word of God with a
good degree of ease."

In 1813-14 ministers of the Gospel were allowed to
visit the prisoners for religious instruction, and this inter-
course must have gone far to allay the bitterness of heart
with which they regarded England and everything English.
But apart from personal contact and that touch of sympathy
which makes all the world kin, the Scriptures themselves
were the best antidote to national antipathy and the true
nepenthe for individual sorrow. "They have contributed,"
wrote a French officer from one of the ships in the Medway,
" to sweeten the bitter cup of which an inscrutable Providence
has condemned us to drink deep for so many years " ; and
another, in expressing his gratitude to the Society, added :
" I should not do justice to my sentiments did I not declare
my regret that my present situation does not permit me to
have the honourable title of a member of such an institution."

Particular care was taken, whenever cartels were de-
spatched, that every prisoner as he embarked had a copy of
the Holy Scriptures to take home to his family ; and small
consignments were entrusted to many of the French officers
for distribution on their arrival at their destination. In this
way the Word of Life was sown in regions which otherwise
would have been quite inaccessible.

126 THE ISLES OF THE SEA [l8o4-

Unhappily the naval policy which was forced on our
Government by the craft of the French Emperor resulted in
1812 in war with the United States. During the conflict
many American prisoners shared the fate of our foreign
captives. Over three hundred were taken after that terrible
six minutes' hurricane of iron on the ist June 1813, when,
escorted by a small fleet of pleasure boats, the Chesapeake,
with several hundred pairs of handcuffs on board, swept
down, in a blaze of streaming colours, on the rusty and
weather-stained Shannon. Honour to the gallant men of
both nations, and peace to old hostilities ! The timber of
the Chesapeake, pitted and furrowed with grape and round
shot, "stands to-day as a Hampshire flour-mill, peace-
fully grinding English corn."1 But the arrival of so many
United States prisoners, men of our own race, compatriots
of the members of those transatlantic societies which had
espoused the cause of "the Bible for the world without
note or comment," gave the Committee deep concern, and a
special consignment of 500 Bibles and 1000 Testaments was
forwarded to Dartmoor for their use. How keenly this act
of religious brotherhood was appreciated in the States may
be gathered from a letter of the secretary of the Virginia
Bible Society, when he learned for the first time that the
American prisoners, in England had received particular
attention : "I will not attempt to express the pleasure which
this communication afforded. Who that has the feelings of
a man or a Christian will not be delighted to see, amidst
the calamities and desolations of war, the mild genius of
Christianity dispensing its blessings and affording its con-
solations? Before the institution of this society, the fortune
of war, as it is termed, put some of your countrymen into
our power. They were kept for some time in Richmond,

1 This briefest and most terrific of sea-fights lasted exactly thirteen minutes — six
spent in broadsides of sixty shot a minute, seven in boarding. " No, we have always
been an unassuming ship," replied Captain Broke, when one of his men, at the sight
of the Chesapeake, asked: "Mayn't we have three ensigns, sir, like she has?" —
Fitchett, Deeds that Won the Empire, p. 126.

,8i7] EFFECTS OF THESE LABOURS 127

and thus the privilege was allowed me of distributing among
them a number of Bibles, which were well received."

When we come to speak of the growth of the Bible Society
system in America we shall see still more striking instances
of the manner in which, unswayed by national prejudice and
the enmity of Governments, Christian men and women, one
at heart in the bonds of the Gospel, were able to rise above
the passions and reprisals of an unhappy time.

During these long years of warfare the Committee dis-
tributed more than 2200 Bibles and 47,371 Testaments, in
different languages, among the prisoners of war, at a cost of
£65$8-1 In what ways unknown to us, and among what
people, the work bore fruit can only be conjectured. More
than once, however, the colporteur of a later day — when
the memory of the Great Emperor had grown dim, except
among the peasants in little old-world villages, who still
dreamed that he would return '2 — were strangely aided and be-
friended by old men who had not wholly forgotten the
dull walls of Portsmouth or Stapleston or Valleyfield, or
the ancient battleships of the Medway or the Hamoaze. Let
a single instance suffice.

In a small French town one of the Society's colporteurs
was badly received by the vicar, who angrily forbade him to
sell his evil books, and vainly he tried to dispose of a solitary
copy as he passed from door to door. One house alone was
left, and there to his joy he found a man who had possessed
a New Testament for seven-and-twenty years, and who ex-
plained a fact so exceptional by saying : " You may recollect
that under the reign of Napoleon we were at war with the
English. I was then in the army, was taken prisoner, and
conveyed to England. While in confinement with others
of my countrymen, we were often visited by several gentle-

1 These figures do not represent all the copies furnished by the Society, and it
must be remembered that, as in the case ofGreenlaw, there were other indirect sources
of supply.

2 Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, p. 108.

128 THE ISLES OF THE SEA [l8o4-

men who addressed us seriously on religious subjects ; and
what was more, supplied every one of us capable of reading
with a New Testament. At the Restoration we were sent
back to our homes, and I took care to carry my invaluable
book along with me. I have even been offered a high price
for it ; but I shall not part with it for any money, because
there are none like it to be met with here." The colporteur
exhibited the Testaments he had for sale, and asked the
veteran whether he was not disposed to do for others
what the friendly Englishmen had done for him — by
furnishing them with the Word of God and exhorting
them to read it. "You are in the right," he replied;
"it is a debt which I ought certainly to repay," and he
purchased half a dozen New Testaments and a copy of
the Psalms.

Thus, then, apart from its large and deliberate opera-
tions abroad, the Society had already begun to carry out
the world-wide task which it had undertaken. Just as
great armies always bear with them, in their forage or
otherwise, seeds of wild flowers and plants that grow in
the meadow and cornfield at home,1 so, by every cartel
and transport, these thousands of foreign prisoners took
back with them to their native soil that promise which is
"the corn of the living," and that hope "which none
shall remove like a tree."

This was but one of the many incidental ways in which
the work of dispersion was furthered. Not the cartels
and the convict-ships alone, but missionaries, Government
officials, travellers, settlers, school-masters were taken
advantage of, to convey the sacred volume to the shores
of those Antipodes which Lactantius ridiculed as the
fantastic "hanging gardens" of impious philosophers, and
Augustine condemned as a fable repugnant to the reason

1 The Cossacks, in 1815, brought more than one Russian plant through Germany
into France, and a year after the surrender of Sedan a crop of North German plants
was growing on French battlefields. — Kingsley, Scientific Lectures and Essays, p. 163.

THE BIBLE AT THE ANTIPODES 129

of a Christian.1 125 Bibles and 475 Testaments were sent
to Tasmania, which was discovered to be an island only
two years before the century began,2 and where, to forestall
the planting of the French flag, the first small colony
was founded in 1803. To New South Wales, chiefly for
the Sunday schools and the accommodation of the free
settlers, 1770 Bibles and 4570 Testaments were despatched
at intervals — at a cost of over ^1000. Turning westward,
we come to the Isles of Mauritius and Bourbon, both
captured from the French in 1810, and the latter restored
at the close of the war. In the picturesque scenes which
St Pierre chose for his famous idyll the Scriptures were
unknown ; for years a French Bible could not have been
purchased, and there were many persons on the island,
sixty and seventy years of age, who had never seen the
sacred book. On the ist November 1812 an Auxiliary
Society for the group was founded under the patronage of
the Governor, General Warde, and the presidency of
General Sir Alexander Campbell ; the Scriptures were
eagerly purchased ; and up to 1817 868 Bibles and 2295
Testaments (,£541) were provided by the Committee.

For the poor natives in South Africa a memorable
appeal was made to the Society in 1809 by the Rev. C. J.
Latrobe, the London agent of the Moravian Missions.
Their Mission among the Hottentots was begun in 1737,
and after some years of prohibition, the Dutch Govern-
ment in 1790 again allowed missionaries to go out to the
Cape. "To learn the Hottentot language," the writer
states, "was next to impossible to our brethren, nor was
it necessary in that part of the country to which they went

1 " Et miratur aliquis hortos pensiles inter Septem Mira narrari, quum philosophi
et agros, et maria, et urbes, et monies pensiles faciunt " (Lactantius, Div. Inst. iii.
24). " Quod vero et Antipodes esse fabulantur, id est homines contraria parte terrae,
ubi sol oritur quando occidit rfobis, adversa pedibus nostris calcare vestigia, nulla
ratione credendum est." — Augustine, De Civ. Dei, xvi. 9.

- By George Bass who, in December 1797 and January 1798, sailed round it — a
voyage of 600 miles — in a whale-boat with six of a crew. — Dunmore Lang, Neva
South Wales, vol. i. p. 63,

VOL. I. I

130 THE ISLES OF THE SEA [1804-

(about 130 miles from Cape Town), as most of the Hottentots
could understand Low Dutch. They settled at a place,
formerly chosen by the first missionary, George Schmidt,
in 1737, near the ruins of his old house and garden, in
which stood an immense pear-tree of his own planting.
Little did he think, when he planted that tree, that he was
laying the foundation of a church and school-house, yea,
of a magnificent temple, in which the glory of the Lord
would some day be revealed. His object was merely to
procure for himself some wholesome food, which, however,
he was not even favoured to reap ; for finding the Word
of God to approve itself, even among Hottentots, the
power of God unto salvation, and a congregation forming
around him, he obtained leave to go home and fetch
assistants in the work, but was never suffered to return.
Meanwhile his pear-tree grew up and was seized as lawful
prize by a host of baboons, who remained in quiet posses-
sion of the whole kloof or glen — thence called Bavians'
Kloof — till they were dislodged in 1790 by the arrival of
three missionaries, to whom immediately a great number
of Hottentots flocked from all parts. They built a small
dwelling, and the Hottentots stuck up their kraals around
them ; but the pear-tree was their church ; there they met
their congregation morning and night ; under the vast
canopy it formed, spreading on all sides like a huge
umbrella, they preached the Gospel, offered up prayer
and praise, and, by the power of God accompanying the
word of atonement preached in simplicity, called sinners
from darkness unto light. During the day the shadowy
temple served as a school-room for from 200 to 300 children,
who were taught to read and to comprehend the doctrines
of Christianity. To this day those instructions continue,
and chiefly in the same place, though there is now a
spacious church erected for public worship. Several
hundred Hottentots have, since the year 1790, learnt to

i8i7] WELCOME IN SOUTH AFRICA 131

read, and the most valuable present that could be made to
them would be Bibles or Testaments."1 Can one doubt
how the Committee responded?

Three years later Mr Latrobe wrote once more: "A
young Hottentot woman related [27th June 1810] that,
some time ago, she was so angry with God and her teachers
that she resolved to get away from Gnadenthal as far as
ever she could travel ; and then she might put in practice
whatever her sinful heart suggested without any control.
'I therefore,' said she, 'set off one day, full of evil
thoughts, and when I got out into the open field, I saw
two of the school-girls, who had been out to fetch sticks,
sitting on the grass. On approaching them, I found they
had got one of the new books (a Testament), and were
reading aloud. Just as I passed them, they read : — Away
with Him, away with Him ; crucify Him ! These words went
into my heart like lightning. It seemed as if I had pro-
nounced them myself against our Saviour. I cried to Him
to have mercy upon me, and to forgive me my many sins.
Of course I returned to Gnadenthal.' That Testament came
from you ! It was given by you to the school-girl, who
otherwise could not have had one, nor have been thus
employed."

As early as 1806, however, the spiritual wants of the
garrison and of the colonists at the Cape had been thought
of by the Society; and the Bibles they sent "came to a
ready, but not unthankful people. It is a fact," wrote a
correspondent in 1810, "that for some time past, not a
single Dutch Bible could be got for money ; and what is
rather singular, the Rev. Mr Kitcherer came from Graff
Reinet — nearly thirty days' journey from Cape Town — ex-
pressly for the purpose of purchasing Bibles and religious
books, and was just returning into the interior full of

1 Southey transcribed nearly the whole of this extract into his Commonplace Book
(vol. iii. p. 140), showing in this instance a better judgment than he did in at least
one of his Quarterly Review articles regarding the Society.

i32 THE ISLES OF THE SEA [1804-

disappointment, when the very seasonable supply from the
Society arrived."

In the following1 decade over 2800 Bibles and 3690
Testaments, Dutch and English, were distributed at a cost
of ^1435. The beloved Gaelic version found its way to
the 93rd Highlanders, who sent their thanks, and insisted
on paying the cost price, so that the Society should not
suffer detriment. Dutch and German Testaments were
also despatched from Bengal for the benefit of the schools
and the converted Hottentots at four missionary stations.
The Scriptures reached the Namaquas too, through the
agency of their pastor, the Rev. C. Albrecht, who was
devoting himself to a translation of St Matthew into their
native dialect. In 1813 the Bible and School Commission
was formed at Cape Town, under the auspices of the
Governor-General, Sir John Cradock, for the education of
the poor and the circulation of the Scriptures ; and though
not exclusively an Auxiliary, it contributed liberally to the
funds of the Society. A small Auxiliary established at
Caledon, 120 miles east of Cape Town, on the last day
of 1815, also sent remittances from time to time.

In 1813 a regular Auxiliary was established — and the
first intimation of its existence was accompanied by a con-
tribution of £160 — at the Isle of St Helena, that towering
mass of mid-ocean basalt, which was discovered, densely
covered with trees and tenanted by "sea-fowl, seals, sea-
lions and turtles," in 1502, on the feast of the mother of
the first Christian Emperor, and was named after her. It
is curious to remember that during his exile on the rock
Napoleon read and annotated the preface written by Dr
(then Mr) Bogue for the French New Testament which the
London Missionary Society published in 1802 — the year in
which four days were spent in searching for a Bible in
Paris.

While Granville Sharp and Zachary Macaulay were

THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA 133

alive there was little likelihood of the West Coast of
Africa being forgotten. The first distribution of the
Scriptures took place in 1808; in the next eight years
804 Bibles and 2037 Testaments were sent out to Sierra
Leone and Goree, and among them were some of the
Arabic Bibles printed under the patronage of the Bishop
of Durham. An interesting picture of the time and place
is preserved in a letter from a missionary who was
wrecked near the Gambia River in 1813. The natives
took possession of the vessel and cargo, and the passengers
and crew escaped to Goree. In the hope of saving some
of his equipment, the missionary communicated with a
trader on the Gambia River, and the latter informed him
that he had been searching for his effects, but "as for the
Arabic Bibles, the Mohammedan natives would not part
with them at all ; he even went so far as to offer for one
to the value of ^8, yet could not get it. ... There was
at the same time an old slave-trader, who bought a great
many things of mine which the natives brought him from
the wreck. Some of the Mohammedans went and told
him that he did wrong in buying these things, because
they belonged to a Bookman who was on board that
wrecked vessel, and if he did not return the things to
that Bookman again, God would punish him by burning
his house and all the goods. The trader laughed at them ;
however, his house and goods became a prey to the flames
two days after. Whether this happened by chance, or
was done on purpose, I cannot state : it showed, however,
that they have some regard for the man who brought the
Word of God among them."

The brightest expectations had been awakened by the
preparation of this Arabic Bible. The undertaking had
been first suggested by Bishop Porteus, who believed
that "it might be of infinite service in sowing the seeds
of Christianity over the whole continent of Africa."

132

THE ISLES OF THE SEA [1804-

disappointment, when the very seasonable supply from the
Society arrived."

In the following decade over 2800 Bibles and 3690
Testaments, Dutch and English, were distributed at a cost
of ,£1435. The beloved Gaelic version found its way to
the 93rd Highlanders, who sent their thanks, and insisted
on paying the cost price, so that the Society should not
suffer detriment. Dutch and German Testaments were
also despatched from Bengal for the benefit of the schools
and the converted Hottentots at four missionary stations.
The Scriptures reached the Namaquas too, through the
agency of their pastor, the Rev. C. Albrecht, who was
devoting himself to a translation of St Matthew into their
native dialect. In 1813 the Bible and School Commission
was formed at Cape Town, under the auspices of the
Governor-General, Sir John Cradock, for the education of
the poor and the circulation of the Scriptures ; and though
not exclusively an Auxiliary, it contributed liberally to the
funds of the Society. A small Auxiliary established at
Caledon, 120 miles east of Cape Town, on the last day
of 1815, also sent remittances from time to time.

In 1813 a regular Auxiliary was established — and the
first intimation of its existence was accompanied by a con-
tribution of ,£160 — at the Isle of St Helena, that towering
mass of mid-ocean basalt, which was discovered, densely
covered with trees and tenanted by "sea-fowl, seals, sea-
lions and turtles," in 1502, on the feast of the mother of
the first Christian Emperor, and was named after her. It
is curious to remember that during his exile on the rock
Napoleon read and annotated the preface written by Dr
(then Mr) Bogue for the French New Testament which the
London Missionary Society published in 1802 — the year in
which four days were spent in searching for a Bible in
Paris.

While Granville Sharp and Zachary Macaulay were

THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA 133

alive there was little likelihood of the West Coast of
Africa being forgotten. The first distribution of the
Scriptures took place in 1808; in the next eight years
804 Bibles and 2037 Testaments were sent out to Sierra
Leone and Goree, and among them were some of the
Arabic Bibles printed under the patronage of the Bishop
of Durham. An interesting picture of the time and place
is preserved in a letter from a missionary who was
wrecked near the Gambia River in 1813. The natives
took possession of the vessel and cargo, and the passengers
and crew escaped to Goree. In the hope of saving some
of his equipment, the missionary communicated with a
trader on the Gambia River, and the latter informed him
that he had been searching for his effects, but "as for the
Arabic Bibles, the Mohammedan natives would not part
with them at all ; he even went so far as to offer for one
to the value of ^"8, yet could not get it. ... There was
at the same time an old slave-trader, who bought a great
many things of mine which the natives brought him from
the wreck. Some of the Mohammedans went and told
him that he did wrong in buying these things, because
they belonged to a Bookman who was on board that
wrecked vessel, and if he did not return the things to
that Bookman again, God would punish him by burning
his house and all the goods. The trader laughed at them ;
however, his house and goods became a prey to the flames
two days after. Whether this happened by chance, or
was done on purpose, I cannot state : it showed, however,
that they have some regard for the man who brought the
Word of God among them."

The brightest expectations had been awakened by the
preparation of this Arabic Bible. The undertaking had
been first suggested by Bishop Porteus, who believed
that "it might be of infinite service in sowing the seeds
of Christianity over the whole continent of Africa."

136 THE ISLES OF THE SEA

Midland Sea was an open highway to many peoples of
various creeds and tongues.

A letter from an officer in the Royal Navy, in 1809, is
one of hundreds that might have been written, and probably
were written, by other sea-farers : " This unsettled way of life
has given me very many opportunities of scattering the
Scriptures far and wide : in England, Scotland, and the
islands ; Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and
even Barbary, I have given away the Word of Eternal
Life. . . . Never did I give one away that was not received
with the most grateful thanks, and I freely gave to all
degrees and descriptions of persons — from the Pope's
Nuncio to the parish priest among the clergy, and from
a grandee to the poor cobbler working in his stall. . . .
The Pope's Nuncio kindly invited me to his palace, and
even sent a gentleman on board the ship I then com-
manded, to request I would come on shore and stay a few
days with him ; but this I could not do. . . . The old
man, in order that he might not forget who gave him a
Testament, took his pencil and wrote my name in it, and
the name of the ship."

A sea-captain, giving account of the Modern Greek
Testaments intrusted^ to him, related that he gave the first to
a pilot of the Isle of Milo, where such a book could not be
bought for money. During a December storm he had to
run into Mitylene — perchance the very haven or roadstead
in which St Paul spent a moonless Sunday night on his
voyage to Rome1 — and there he gave one to a priest, who,
in his astonishment to see the Testament in his everyday
tongue, sat down in the street to read it. At Smyrna,
where among fifty to sixty thousand Greek families hardly
a copy of the New Testament was to be found, he pre-
sented one to the Bishop, and was pleased to learn
that the monks made no objection to the circulation of

1 Conybeare and Howson, Si Paul, p. 548.

i8i7l MODERN GREEK NEW TESTAMENT 137

the Scriptures, though they considered the omission of
the Apocrypha a mutilation of the Bible.

The version of the New Testament in Modern Greek
was received with delight. At an early date attention
had been called by Dr Bogue of Gosport to the need of
an edition in this language.

A version by Maximus Calliergi, or Callipoli, had
been printed at Geneva in 1638, revised and reprinted in
1703 and 1705 by the Society for Propagating the Gospel,
and reprinted again at Halle in 1710 at the expense of
Queen Sophia Louisa of Prussia. A copy of this last
edition was selected by the Society ; the work was seen
through the press by the Rev. J. F. Usko, who had
returned to this country after a long residence at Smyrna ;
and in 1810 a supply was shipped to Malta and the
Levant. Archimandrites and bishops lauded its accuracy
and utility, and aided in its distribution; "his Lowliness,"
Cyril the CEcumenical Patriarch, sanctioned its acceptance
"by all pious, united, and orthodox Christians"; Greek
officers ordered it for their regiments ; it was scattered
throughout the islands and along the coasts, and was
asked for so urgently that a second edition was issued
two years later. "I find myself impelled to believe," wrote
the learned Dean of Scandinari, "that the Lord, for the
sake of His only and beloved Son, is determined to
reform these our parts, and to communicate the brightness
of His light, through your Testament, in the Levant —
where, as you know, there is nothing to be found but
darkness and wretchedness and perdition."

In all, 15,000 copies were printed — 10,000 in Modern
Greek, and 5,000 with the original text and the modern
version in parallel columns.

The Italian New Testament was as heartily welcomed
as the Greek. At Messina, indeed, an objection to the
translation was raised by the priests ; but as the result

138 THE ISLES OF THE SEA [i&>4-

of a strict examination by a committee of the most learned
of the clergy, the Bishop was pleased to authorise its
circulation. The version was that of the "admirable"
Diodati, who at the age of twenty-one had been appointed
Professor of Hebrew at Geneva, and who was one of the
six divines chosen at the Synod of Dort to draw up its
Confession of Faith.

It was perceived at an early date that the advantageous
position of Malta marked it out for the great central depot
of the Society's work in the Mediterranean. No other
English possession is more happily situated for com-
munication with Greek, Italian, French, Spanish, and
Arabic speaking peoples. A few passages from letters
written by representatives at Malta aptly illustrate this fact :
"Of the Testaments you have entrusted to me," writes
one, "I have sent some to the Morea, having an oppor-
tunity by means of a good Christian friend. These
Italian Testaments were received at Tripolitza with in-
credible eagerness." . . . "With respect to the Arabic
Testaments," says another, "I have sent to Tunis four
of them by a captain of a Tunis vessel. He received
them almost in a transport of joy, read in them, kissed
them, and then kissed me for them ; and he said that
the persons who could read them should always wash
their hands three times before they opened the book." . . .
"I have also supplied," writes a third, "the French and
Italian prisoners of war (about 1000) with Bibles and
Testaments on board transports in this harbour [Valetta]
previous to their return to their respective countries. Few
of them appear to have been acquainted before with the
sacred writings." . . . "From the favourable accounts
I have received from Zante," writes a fourth, "I have no
doubt but that there is a large field open in the Ionian
Islands for the sale of these inestimable books."

The Bible cause had been warmly taken up by the

MALTA AS A BIBLE STATION 139

Rev. Mr Terrot, chaplain to Sir Alexander Ball, the
Governor of Malta, and his friend Cleardo Naudi, physician
and Professor of Chemistry in the College of Valetta, who,
though a staunch Roman Catholic all his life, had been
appalled by the ignorance and spiritual dangers of the
Christians living under Turkish rule. In 1811 he addressed
a remarkable appeal to the Rev. Josiah Pratt, secretary to
the Church Missionary Society, in which he quotes the
saying of a Greek deacon, that "the institution of the Bible
Society of England must have taken place by heavenly
inspiration," and calls on the missionaries "to enter on the
labour of propagating the Christian faith among infidels, and
of confirming it among the ignorant." The Propaganda
had perished — "its property sold, its revenues usurped
and diverted " ; the few Franciscans still in Egypt were ill-
informed. Since Rome had failed, "the English Church,
as an independent Branch, was quite qualified to teach the
East."1

A hearty response was made to this appeal. It was felt
that Malta had not been placed in our hands solely for the
extension and protection of our political greatness. The
Rev. William Jowett, Pratt's brother-in-law, a Cambridge
Wrangler, and the first University missionary of the Church
Missionary Society, was sent out to Malta as a " Literary
Representative," with a special mission, in which shortly
afterwards the first Oxford men, James Connor ^and John
Hartley, took an important part. To these matters, however,
we shall return later.

In 1812 a representative from Malta visited Sicily on a
Bible tour, and received numerous applications from Palermo,
Trapani, Syracuse, Catania, Taormina — in fact from all parts
of the island. He climbed ^tna, and was hospitably received
by the prior of a monastery, the last inhabited house towards
the summit, "who in return for an Italian Testament accom-

1 Stock, Hist, of the Church Missionary Society ', vol. i. p. 223.

1 40 THE ISLES OF THE SEA

modated us with the best his humble habitation could afford
—which could not be procured in this awful and barren place
for money." On his way to the volcano he had presented
to an unknown Italian gentleman at Aci Reale a copy of the
New Testament, and on his return he found that the stranger,
the Marquis Vico, had been several times to the inn to inquire
for him and had left an invitation, "saying his house, horses,
and carriages were at my service ; which I was obliged to
decline, to the no small disappointment of himself and his
family, in consequence of my hasty return to Malta." The
Gospel was everywhere a golden key to the hearts and homes
of men.

In the course of seven years — the first attempt of the Society
was made in 1809 — by the means we have described, and
principally through the agency of representatives at Malta, over
800 Bibles and 15,000 Testaments, in French, Italian, Modern
Greek, Arabic and Armenian, were distributed, at a cost of
^2370, in the islands and along the coast of the Midland Sea ;
and 220 Ethiopic Psalters, through the good offices of Mr
Salt, British Consul in Egypt, reached the mysterious realm
of Abyssinia. In the control of these operations much advan-
tage was derived from the assistance of Claudius James Rich,
the East India Company's resident at Baghdad; John Barker,
the British Consul at Aleppo; the Rev. H. Lindsay, chaplain
to the Embassy at Constantinople; and Sir Charles Penrose,
the Admiral commanding in the Mediterranean. Mr Rich
made the Society acquainted with the dearth of Scriptures in
the Pashalik of Baghdad, where Bibles in Syriac and Chaldee
were to be found only in manuscript in the churches, and
where, had they existed in print, they would have been of little
use, as the language of the people was for the most part
Arabic. Mr Lindsay obtained the Armenian Patriarch's
approval of the circulation of the Scriptures, and, in 1816,
traversing ground hallowed by the footsteps of St Paul — now
vaguely remembered as a name in the Calendar of Saints — he

i8i7] AT THE TIME CHRIST SUFFERED 141

visited the seven Apocalyptic Churches of Asia Minor, and
presented each with a copy of the New Testament in its own
tongue.

The latest incident in the Society's records connected with

these years is the vote of thanks passed by the Society

to Admiral Charles Penrose, Commander-in-Chief in the

Mediterranean, for his readiness to assist in the dispersion of

the Holy Scriptures among the Ionian Islands, and other

places visited by the ships under his command. There was

already a zealous friend of the Bible cause at Corfu, and

doubtless both he and the Admiral had recalled, as they passed

the Isle of Paxo, that strangest of old legends which Plutarch

relates as having happened about the time our Lord suffered

His most bitter passion, and which must have now appealed

to them with peculiar significance. In the reign of Tiberius

a ship was sailing off the Echinad Isles, and as evening closed

the wind dropped, and the vessel, carried by the current,

drifted near Paxo, about ten miles south of Corfu. " Most of

the voyagers had not yet gone to sleep, and many were still

sitting at their wine after supper, when suddenly from the Isle

of Paxo a voice was heard calling so loudly on ' Thamus '

that they were amazed. Thamus was the Egyptian steersman,

known by name to many on board. To the first and second

calling he made no reply, but at the third time he answered,

and the voice, still more loud and clear, uttered these words :

' When thou comest over against Palodes give tidings that

great Pan is dead.' ' After much debate among the voyagers

Thamus decided that if all was calm he would deliver his

message. When they reached Palodes there was no breath of

wind or swell of sea, and "standing on the poop Thamus

cried out to the land what he had heard, ' Great Pan is dead.'

Then there arose along the shore a great wailing, not of one,

but of many voices mingling in amazement. The story got

spread about in Rome, and Thamus was sent for by Tiberius,

who gave such credence to the tale that he made inquiry and

142 THE ISLES OF THE SEA [1804-1817

research concerning this Pan."1 " By whych Pan," says the
old commentator on Spenser's May pastoral, "though of some
be understoode the great Satanas, whose kingdome at that
time was by Christ conquered, the gates of hell broken up,
and death by death delivered to eternall death, yet I thinke it
more properly meant of the death of Christ, the onely and very
Pan, then suffering for his flock. . . . For Pan signifieth
all, or omnipotent, which is onel-y the Lord Jesus. And by
that name (as I remember) he is called of Eusebius, in his fifte
booke De Preparat. Evang."2

Just as the period under review closed, a Bible Society was
established in Malta, and in due time we shall pick up the
clue of its operations.

1 Plutarch, Moralia: "The Cessation of Oracles," xvii.

2 Spenser, The Shepheards Calender, " Maye."

CHAPTER IX

THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST

WE are now free to turn attention to the vast project of
evangelization which the Bible Society had undertaken on
the Continent.

The first continental Auxiliary, the German Bible Society,
was formed, as we briefly stated in Chap. III., at Nurem-
berg, on Ascension Day 1804. In 1806, with the hearty
concurrence of the friends at Nuremberg, it was transferred
to Basel, where it was welcomed by supporters who, eager as
they were to promote the object of the Society, considered
their means insufficient to maintain an independent Auxiliary.
The change was wholly advantageous, for Basel was noted
for the excellence of its typography and paper; it was the
centre of the celebrated German Religious Society, which
enjoyed an extensive range of influence in Germany and
Switzerland, and which promised its active assistance ; and
its position offered facilities for unexpected communication
with France. Even before the transference took place, the
London Committee had remitted two sums of ^50 to the
Rev. Mr Blumhardt, the secretary of the Religious Society,
who, in accordance with their wishes, distributed copies of
the Scriptures among the poor of Lausanne, Besan9on,
Montmirail, and Strasburg, and opened negotiations for
the supply of correspondents at Lyons, in the valleys
of the Cevennes, at Nismes, Bordeaux, and even in
Paris.

To enable the German Bible Society to enlarge the scope

J43

144 THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST [1804-

of its operations in these auspicious circumstances the
Committee voted, as a third donation, a grant of ^300.

And here once more we are made conscious of the
deplorable state of Europe and of the restless tyranny of
Napoleon. In the most favourable conditions communi-
cation, at that period, was slow and precarious. As late as
1811 news travelled at the rate of seventy miles a day. It
took a full week to reach Paris from Antwerp ; six days
from Strasburg, Lyons, or Brest ; eleven from Rome, and
twenty-one from Madrid. But in these times of deadly
confusion, with the Emperor's stern embargo on everything
that related to England, intercourse was practically sus-
pended. A solitary letter from Basel reached the Committee
in 1807. It stated that a large edition of the New Testament
was being printed in April, and that the Old Testament
was about to be sent to press. A second letter was received
in October 1808. The New Testament, said the writer, Dr
Hertzog, the octogenarian Professor of Divinity in the
University of Basel, had been in circulation for some months,
and had met with unqualified approval. The Old Testa-
ment would be ready before the close of the year ; and so
many orders had been received that the first edition would
be practically exhausted on publication, but they hoped to
proceed with a second and a third. If the old city in
which Erasmus published his memorable Greek and Latin
Testament had been silent, it was not for lack of news. A
number of pious Moravian merchants in Basel had engaged
on an edition of the New Testament for the mountaineers of
the Grisons, in that strange Roumansch or Romanese, whose
origin, to judge by the survival of Etruscan words embedded
in it, seems to be thrown back into a mysterious antiquity.
The New Testament, printed in 1560, and the whole Bible,
in 1679, had long been exhausted, and any stray copy com-
manded an exorbitant price ; so that these poor hill-folk
stood much in need of the Word of Life. Regarding France,

DISTRIBUTIONS IN FRANCE 145

too, he was able to transmit a good report: — "From the
sale of a considerable number of French Bibles, which we
disposed of very cheap to some truly excellent French
ministers in Languedoc, we have been enabled to proceed
to a new edition of the French Testament. At first we
endeavoured to collect a sufficient sum of money for the
printing of the whole French Bible, but as we could not
succeed to the full extent of our wishes, we were obliged to
confine ourselves to the New Testament." Whereupon, as
might have been expected, the Committee ordered a set of
plates of the French Bible to be despatched to Basel. A third
letter was received in July 1809. The second edition, 5500
copies, of the German Bible had been issued in the preceding
December, and as it had been almost entirely disposed of, a
third edition, of 3000 copies, had been put to press. Further
information was given with regard to France ; and as some
time was needed for the printing of the French Bible from
the plates which had been presented, the Committee remitted
^200 for the purchase of Bibles and Testaments so that
the large Protestant congregations in Languedoc and other
parts might be provided without delay, either by sale or
gratuitous distribution.

A fourth letter arrived about the end of April 1810. The
last donation had been received, and promptly applied to
its purpose. Over 2000 Testaments had been sent to Nismes,
goo to Montbeliard, some hundreds more in other directions ;
and the writer added: "From the south of France we have
heard that even Roman Catholics secretly desire to obtain
our Testaments, and read them with eagerness and gratitude."
A member of the Basel Society had also offered to produce
in the course of the year 4000 copies of the Old Testament
in French, if that society would take 1000 off his hands.
This liberal proposal had been accepted ; and as it was
through Basel alone that the British and Foreign Bible
Society could hope to reach the people of France, the
VOL. I. K

146 THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST [1804-

Committee resolved to assist the enterprise with a fourth
grant of ^300.

Then, too, the same letter went on to state, the Romanese
New Testament had, to the great joy of the mountaineers,
been issued in April (1810), and the good merchants who
had borne the expense had been considering the possibility
of producing a Roumansch edition of the Old Testament.
The entire cost, however, was too heavy for them ; but
though they were willing to contribute generously, the
Basel Society could not assist them, so the matter was in
the hands of God. This old Roumansch moreover had two
very distinct dialects, the Churwelsche and the Ladinische,1
and when the poor Ladins in the upper Rhine valleys
bordering on Italy heard what a treasure their neighbours
on the Tyrolese frontier had got, they expressed a very
strong desire that they too, whose Bible of 1719 was rarely
to be had at any price, should be similarly favoured. The
double appeal seemed to indicate so clearly the directions
in which good work might be effected that the Committee
responded readily with a grant of £200 on behalf of an
edition of the Old Testament in the Churwelsche dialect
for the Engadine Protestants, and another £200 for a Ladin
New Testament for, the Roman Catholic Oberland ; and
when, in the last letter (October 1810) received for many
eventful months, it was suggested that the ^200 designed
for the Churwelsche Old Testament might satisfy a more

1 "The Roumansch or Rumansch, the language of the Grisons, is spoken in the
valley of the Inn, the Enghadine, and in the valley of the Rhine, the Oberland.
The inhabitants of the Enghadine are Protestants ; those of the Oberland, Roman
Catholics. The dialect of the former is called Roumansch, that of the latter Ladin.
There is a religious literature of the sixteenth century, consisting chiefly of trans-
lations of the Bible, catechisms, and hymns in Roumansch. A translation of the
New Testament exists in the Bodleian Library : ' L'g Nuof Sainc Testamaint da
nos Signer Jesu Christi, prais our delg Latin et our d'oters launguax et huossa da
nceuf mis in Arumaunsch tres lachiam Bifrum d'Agnedina. Schquischo ilg an
MDLX.'" (Max Miiller, The Science of Language, vol. i. p. 223). This "Nuof
Sainc Testamaint" is the Churwelsche version of 1560 already referred to. It
materially helped the spread of the Reformation through the Rhajtian Valley of the
inn, and is said to be the first printed book in the language. It was preceded by
popular songs of derring-do, and an epic by Johannes Travers in 1525.

i8i?] RATISBON AND CANSTEIN 147

pressing need if diverted to an edition of the Italian New
Testament, the Committee emphasised their wish that the
original arrangement should hold good, and promised a
third grant of £200 for the Italian version.

Here then in the opening months of 1812 we leave
the story of the German Society at Basel, to record what
was happening in these turbulent years in other parts of
Europe.

The establishment of the first Bible Society at Nuremberg
excited the emulation of the Roman Catholics at Ratisbon,
who proceeded to organise an institution of their own under
the management of Regens Wittman, the Director of the
Ecclesiastical Seminary in that city. Though its relations
were marked by a spirit of Christian liberality, its action
was wholly independent of the British and Foreign Bible
Society. Still, its object was the same, and the translation
of the New Testament, which it issued for the benefit of
thousands who had hitherto never read the Scriptures,
was that of Schwarzel, which was free from note or
comment, and which commended itself to the approval even
of the ministers of the Lutheran Church. Up to the year
1812 it had distributed 27,500 copies, of which all but 100
had been sold ; in 1822 the number had increased to 65,000.
After that date communications with the Committee in
London appear to have ceased, and a decade or two later
this Ratisbon Society is believed to have died out.

Mention must now also be made of the Canstein Bible
Institution at Halle, in Saxony, which for nearly a hundred
years before the formation of the British and Foreign
Bible Society had done much to preserve the light of the
Gospel unextinguished in a darkening world, and which
now afforded the Society frequent and opportune assistance.
The institution was formed in 1710 by Carl Hildebrand,
Baron von Canstein, who to his piety and philanthropy
added the resourcefulness of an ingenious mother-wit. He

148 THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST [1804-

invented a method of printing something similar to stereo-
typing, though the details are not clearly known, and
was able to produce Bibles and Testaments, which could
be sold, the former at iod., and the latter at 3d. a copy.
At his death he left the institution to the care of his friend
the Rev. Professor August Hermann Franke, who, with
no other resource than a reliance on Providence, had in
1698 founded the munificent Orphanage of Halle. During
the ninety-five years this institution had existed, over three
million copies, either of the whole Bible or of the New
Testament, had been printed in different languages, includ-
ing Bohemian and Polish, and dispersed not only
throughout the greater part of Europe, but in America
and among the Russian colonies in Asia ; and many
thousands had been distributed gratuitously among the
poor. Dr Knapp, who was now the Director of the
Orphanage, placed at the disposal of the Committee much
valuable information, which in the course of time enabled
the Society to enlarge the range of its operations with
an ease and efficacy that would not otherwise have been
possible. From the depot of the institution temporary
supplies were obtained by the continental societies, and
from the same source the Committee in London, in their
sympathy for the necessitous and the sorrowful, distributed
copies of the Scriptures to the value of ^900 among the
colonists of the Volga, the poor of Germany and Poland,
and unhappy exiles who, in the bombardment and sack
of their native towns, had often lost everything but life.

It was with no unworthy elation that the Bible Society
heard of the establishment of an Auxiliary at Berlin, the
first founded under the special sanction and personal
approval of a crowned head. From that royal example
what hopes were derived of a brilliant future among
the nations of Europe ! Encouraged by the success of
Nuremberg, and the promise of aid from the Committee,

i8i7l THE BERLIN BIBLE SOCIETY 149

the Rev. John Jsenicke, minister of the Bohemian Church
in Berlin, had secured the co-operation of several noble-
men and persons of eminence ; and in 1805 the foundation
of a society was laid, and a stirring address was issued
to the Christians of the Prussian States. In February
1806 he submitted the address to the King, in a letter
humbly soliciting his Majesty's gracious protection ; and
four days later Frederick William replied : " It is with
real satisfaction that I discover from your letter of the yth
February and the enclosed address the laudable endeavours
of the Prussian Bible Society for the gratuitous and cheap
distribution of the Bible to the poor of my dominions ; and
whilst I render justice to your particular merit in promoting
such a useful institution, I transmit to you at the same
time twenty Fredericks d'or as an addition to its funds."

To their first promised contribution of ;£ioo, the Com-
mittee added a second of ^150; the Berlin Society had
already purchased Bohemian Testaments from Halle, and
was arranging with the Protestant clergy in Bohemia for
a new edition of the • Bohemian Bible, to be printed in
Prague ; subscriptions were beginning to flow in and
the co-operation of Dantzic had been obtained, when the
victory of Jena on the I4th October 1806 annihilated an
army which had been regarded as the most formidable
in Europe, and made Napoleon master of almost an entire
kingdom containing nearly nine millions of inhabitants.

It was a time of consternation, of social dissolution, of
unspeakable disorder. " So thoroughly did Napoleon
organise the pursuit, and so carefully did he estimate
the total result of his victory, that nothing escaped him.
The French soldiers carried everything before them. A
Prussian reserve corps was easily beaten at Halle by
Bernadotte, and fled for refuge to the improvised fortress
of Magdeburg."1 Fortress fell after fortress; "Frederick

1 Sloane, Life of Napoleon Bonaparte : " The Devastation of Prussia."

150 THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST [1804-

William himself would have been captured at Weissensee
but for Bliicher, who brazenly declared to Klein, the French
commander, that an armistice had been granted " ; Bliicher
himself reached Liibeck, but, driven thence after a gallant
resistance, he too surrendered, and lived to fight on a
more memorable day. Ten days after the battle of Jena
the Emperor arrived at Potsdam, and gave the cue to a
ruthless soldiery who needed no incentive to spoliation
and luxury. Visiting the tomb of Frederick the Great,
he expressed his profound reverence for that military
genius, " and sent the old hero's sword, belt, and hat
as trophies to ornament the Invalides at Paris." On the
2yth, dressed in his plainest uniform, with a little hat and a
penny cockade, he entered Berlin in a blaze of pageantry,
at the head of the largest body of troops he could muster.
"As in Italy, the galleries, libraries, collections, and public
monuments were stripped of their finest treasures to enrich
Paris." Wherever the troops were billeted they imitated
the example of their Emperor and his rapacious generals.
The castles of the nobility and the houses of the wealthy
citizens were naturally selected for occupation, but no
place was safe from the rapine and lust of the invaders.

One of the first uses Napoleon made of his conquest
was to strike another blow at England through her trade.
On the 2ist November he issued his Berlin Decree,
completing the continental embargo which for four years
had occupied his thoughts. "The British Islands," he
declared, "are henceforth blockaded; all commerce with
them is prohibited ; letters and packages with an English
address will be confiscated, as also every store of English
goods on the Continent within the borders of France and
her allies ; every piece of English goods, all English
vessels, and those laden with staples from English colonies,
will be excluded from all European harbours, including
those of neutral States." It was a ruinous policy, which

i8i7l THE MISERY OF PRUSSIA 151

ultimately led to the invasion of Russia, and to the
destruction of Napoleon himself.

On the yth July 1807 the Treaty of Tilsit was signed,
and two days later the Treaty with Prussia, which for six
years left that kingdom a mutilated and subjugated country,
burdened with an enormous indemnity, and oppressed and
degraded by French garrisons. " First and last the war
cost Prussia, in the support of the French army and in
actual contributions to France, over a milliard of francs —
about the gross national income of thirteen years."1 As
the result of the "Continental System," which practically
abolished exports and imports, manufactories were brought
to a standstill, money became scarce, business houses
collapsed in bankruptcy. Is it strange that, realising
the bitterness of all this humiliation and suffering, the
pious and beautiful Queen Louise — she who in the bloom of
her high-spirited womanhood had ridden at the head of
her regiment on the eve of hostilities, she who had borne
with such gracious fortitude the personal indignities of
the Emperor — should in these years have died of a broken
heart ?

"The very necessaries of daily life are exorbitantly
high," wrote one who gathered the stories of that terrible
period; "the multitude of poor increases frightfully; even
in the great cities the troops of hungry souls that traverse
the streets can scarcely be controlled. The more wealthy
also restrict their wants to the smallest possible compass.
Instead of coffee they drink roasted acorns, and eat black
rye bread." Sugar goes out of use; housewives no
longer preserve fruit ; coltsfoot takes the place of tobacco,
and wine is made of black currants, so that the people
may do without the luxuries or replace the necessaries
in which the foreign tyrant has a monopoly. In such

1 Sloane, Life of Napoleon Bonaparte : " The Devastation of Prussia."

2 Freytag, Pictures of German Life, second series, vol. ii. p. 207.

152 THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST [1804-

circumstances as these, what hope is there of forming
Bible Societies? With God's blessing, much; as we shall
see.

When one remembers the intellectual splendour of the
period — how each event in Bonaparte's career synchronises
with the production of some German masterpiece : Lodi
and Arcola with Wilhelm Meister and the Horen ; the
conquest of Switzerland and the Papal States with
Wallenstein ; the seizure of the left bank of the Rhine with
the Maid of Orleans; the occupation of Hanover with
The Bride of Messina; the proclamation of Napoleon as
Emperor with Wilhelm Tell — the sudden and utter over-
throw of Prussia seems inexplicable, except on the theory
that the nation had been surprised in mid-stream during
a period of slow transition from an effete political system
to a new mode of existence. But if Prussia was over-
whelmed, the spirit of the people had not been shattered
in the catastrophe. The roll of the French drums could
not drown the war-songs of the patriotic Arndt, the teach-
ing of the inspiring Schleiermacher, the prophetic voice
of Fichte in his Addresses to the German People. And who
can estimate the effect of the Bible Society's influence
during the next six years in lifting the hearts of the
nation, in assuring them that a divine justice reigned over
all, in rallying them around the ideal of the Deutschen
Vaterland?1

Two days before the declaration of war the Committee
had voted another grant of ;£ioo to assist the Berlin
Society in undertaking an edition of the Polish Bible ;
and with a stout heart in the midst of their invaders, the

1 See Moritz Arndt's passionate lyric of 1813 —

Sa§ tft be§ ®eutfd>en SBatertanb?
Sfft'S <preit&enlanb, tft'S ©djtoabenlanb ?
3f jit'S too am SRIjettt bie SRebe btiifjt?
3ft'S too am 33ett bie 2flb'toe jieljt?
D ncin! item! ttein!

SSaterlanb muf grower fettt.

1817] ISSUE OF THE BOHEMIAN BIBLE 153

directors had set themselves earnestly to the work before
them. On the igth May 1807 they wrote: "The distress
with us is very great ; thousands groan under the pressure
of extreme poverty. O Lord Jesus, have mercy upon us,
and deliver us out of these troubles ! Yet adoration to
Thy name, that Thy work is still being carried on ! Here
is the fifty-sixth sheet of our Bohemian Bible" — evidently
the Prague arrangement had been modified; — "if we
meet with no impediment I hope the whole work will be
completed towards the end of next October. Blessed be
the name of the Lord ! His Kingdom will increasingly
prosper in the midst of the convulsions of earthly
realms."

Then all is silence, till a couple of letters of June 1808
manage to run the blockade. From them we learn that
the first copies of the Bohemian Bible had been completed
in the preceding September, and were now being dis-
tributed in Bohemia and among the Bohemian colonies
in Silesia. Gladly would they print a Polish Bible in
Berlin, but their funds are low ; they are bound and en-
compassed on all sides, and still wait for the Ephphatha
of the Lord. "The distress of multitudes increases,"
writes a correspondent, "hundreds of families are with-
out employment, without bread ! " And Prince Jerome,
who holds his dissolute court at Breslau, is bathing daily
in a cask of wine. "From the middle of January to the
middle of April last, I [Pastor John Jaenicke] have daily
distributed 6000 messes of the Rumford soup. Yet in
the midst of these distresses I am not left without hope. . . .
Did He not spare Nineveh? Did He not compassionately
regard the six score thousand infants, and also the cattle
left therein? And will He have less compassion on the
many thousand children that are in this city and in our
provinces?"

The Committee were not insensible to these representa-

154 THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST [1804-

tions. By successive grants amounting to ^"900 they
insured an extensive edition of the Scriptures in Polish—
8000 Bibles and 4000 extra Testaments — and subsequently
advanced a loan of ^300 to tide over the interval between
publication and the receipts accruing from sales.

By the close of February 1809, of the 3000 copies of
the Bohemian Bible, upwards of 2500 had been sold among
the Bohemian and Silesian Protestants, 250 had been
given away, and, as only 92 remained, "we feel deeply
ashamed of our unbelieving fears which had prevailed
over us to print only 3000 copies."

A letter of March 1810 stated that satisfactory progress
was being made with the Polish Bible, and specimen
pages had been sent to all the chief Protestant congrega-
tions in Poland ; but one packet had been thrice returned,
finally with the intimation that there was no mail to
Galicia in time of war. In spite of all hindrances, in
spite of poverty and suffering and national humiliation,
the Polish edition of the Scriptures was completed in
October 1810, at an expense of ^1600, to which the
British and Foreign Bible Society had contributed ^"960.
Thus once more in the inscrutable over-ruling of Providence
Poland had been provided with the Word of Life at a
period when it was never more needed, but in circum-
stances in which its acquisition seemed a marvel beyond
the dreams of human hope.

Early in 1811 the demand for another issue of the
Bohemian Bible became urgent and insistent. From
Prague it was reported that there were whole congrega-
tions who had not received a single copy of the first
impression ; in Moravia at least 1000 copies were needed
in the parishes under the inspection of one clergyman ;
but the people were miserably poor. The moan of Lazarus
shivers through all these stricken years. "The want of
money is most severely felt in Prussia, Bohemia, Poland ;

THE BIBLE FOR LITHUANIA 155

coin is very scarce, except copper ; and the value of the
state-paper is so low that lately TOO florins in paper fetched
only 12 J in specie. Though we offered our Bohemian
friends a copy at a florin in specie, it would cost them
12 in paper. As for Prussia, our own distress is very great.
The annual income of our society " — our Bible Society
here in Berlin — "is little more than 100 rix-dollars (a
little over ^20), as we have lost some of our principal
subscribers by death, and others have become unable to
continue their subscriptions." The reply of the Committee
was another grant of ^300, and the second edition of
the Bohemian Bible was put to press. Here, in the
spring of 1812, we suspend the story of the Berlin Bible
Society.

As early as 1806 the condition of the people of Lithuania,
that old duchy which lay between Courland, Russia,
Prussia, and Poland, had engaged the attention of the
Bible Society. The Committee were informed that the
population, which numbered a million, was rude, and
poorer even than the Poles, but not lacking in religious
feeling, though, owing to its rarity and extravagant price —
from 175. 6d. to a guinea — there was a danger of the Bible
falling wholly into oblivion among them. A strange old-
world region of lumber-men and bee-keepers, shepherds,
graziers, and husbandmen ; speaking a tongue which of
all the idioms surviving in Europe is said to come nearest
to the Sanskrit ; haunted still by wild pagan legends and
folk-songs of a singular freshness ; quaintly primeval, too,
in their notions of conduct, if one may credit the travellers'
reports that in Samogitia they will not allow a young
woman to go out in the night without a candle in her hand
and two bells at her girdle.

In 1806 the Bible Society had offered to aid in the
printing of a new edition of the Lithuanian Bible, the last
impression of which was issued in 1755, if the task could

156 THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST

be undertaken by a respectable printer in Konigsberg ;
but in November that year "the French eagles," to use
the phrase of the Emperor's bulletin, " were hovering over
the Vistula ; " in the following February the Russians had
taken their stand under the walls of the old capital, where
Kant was born, and where he had been laid to rest three
years before ; and it was not till 1809 that, stimulated by
a grant of ^300, a Konigsberg Bible Committee was formed.
Even then the possibility of obtaining from a ravaged
country the additional funds necessary appeared so hopeless
that they hesitated to begin. The difficulty was removed by
another donation of £200 ; it was decided to proceed with
an edition of 3000 Bibles and as many extra Testaments
as their resources allowed. The good tidings were announced
far and wide from the pulpit, and in a few months some
1300 copies were subscribed for.1 Progress, however, was
retarded by various unforeseen obstacles, and in 1812
the work was still going through the press.

When the Polish Bible was ready, the Konigsberg
Committee were able to give valuable assistance in its
distribution. They ordered 1000 copies from Berlin, for
it was their intention to furnish with a few Bibles and
Testaments every Polish school within their range. A
devout friend of the cause added 300 copies ; and the
London Committee placed at their discretion, for sale or
gift, 300 Bibles and icoo Testaments, on the understanding
that any proceeds should be assigned to the fund for the
Lithuanian Scriptures.

It will suffice to indicate how far afield the thoughts of
the Bible Society were travelling at this time if we quote

1 In a communication from the Konigsberg Bible Committee it is mentioned that
while this version is printed without note or comment, palpable errors in translation
have been amended by clergymen of the strictest integrity, who fully understand
Hebrew and Greek as well as Lithuanian. " For instance, in that well-known
passage in Isaiah Iv. 8, 9, ' For my thoughts are not your thoughts,' the old
Lithuanian translation was thus, ' For my knees are not your knees,' which is
absolute nonsense."

'Si?] THOUGHTS TURNED TO TURKEY 157

a passage or two from a memorandum prepared by the
distinguished Orientalist, Von Hammer, who, after serving
in Egypt as interpreter to the English army during Sir
Ralph Abercrombie's campaign, was now acting as Austrian
Consul in Moldavia: "The nations to whom the efforts
of the Bible Society (an institution highly beneficial to
mankind) might prove a blessing in the European pro-
vinces of Turkey, may be divided into Christians and non-
Christians. The former are Greeks, Armenians, Servians,
and Wallachians. Greek and Armenian Bibles do exist,
but they are not in the hands of the people. The Servians
and Wallachians have never had the Scriptures translated
into their native tongue. The former can read the Illyrian
Scriptures, Servian being only a dialect of Illyrian; the
Wallachians and Moldavians have but very few books
printed. There is, however, a printing-office at Bucharest
and another in Hermanstadt. It would not be difficult to
procure an able translator among the Wallachian and
Moldavian clergy. I have not seen as yet a Turkish
translation of the Scriptures." Patience, good Orientalist;
you shall see the Scriptures in all these tongues long
before your aged and indefatigable head is laid on its last
pillow among the Styrian firs.

And now the disastrous events which were the immediate
sequel to the Berlin Decree and the Treaty of Tilsit compel
us to transfer our attention to the nations of the North.
Before closing this chapter, however, we must attempt a
brief sketch of one of the most enthusiastic adherents of
the Bible Society, and, humble though his sphere of action
was, one of the most engaging personalities of his time.
Pastor Oberlin of Ban de la Roche, in Alsace, was among
the first on the Continent to declare himself a friend of the
cause ; it was, as we have seen, from the interesting details
in one of his letters that Mr Dudley derived the fruitful
scheme of Female Bible Associations ; and he may be

158 THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST [1804-

said to have crowned his devotion to the Society with the
life of his youngest son.

You shall discover the five hamlets of the Ban de la
Roche — Fief or Manor of the Rock — on a jagged and
insulated mountain mass outlying the Vosges chain.
" Field of Fire" it is graphically named; a volcanic granite
region ; higher than Snowdon ; strangled in snow from
September till close of May ; roadless when Oberlin came,
save for a wild-cat track which scrambled athwart the face
of the precipice down to Bruche river, across which, with
the good-will of the water-wraith, one might pass along
thirty feet of stepping-stones. Halfway up — Oberlin's Wald-
bach, among the pines and tumbled rocks !

The Ban covered nine thousand acres — more or less on
end ; fifteen hundred of them under potatoes, oats, and rye ;
as much in meadow and garden ; of the residue, one-third
pasture, and two-thirds forest — ravening forest, which for
generations had impoverished peasant and seigneur alike
with its rights and litigation and law-costs, till Oberlin,
gentle and conciliatory, made an end of the ruinous strife.
In the five hamlets eighty to a hundred families eked out a
starveling existence.

One privilege, denied to the ancient provinces of
France, was the heritage of the Field of Fire — an unques-
tioned liberty of conscience. While the Protestants of
Languedoc were envying the early Christians the safety
of the Catacombs, here in the Ban, Roman Catholics and
Lutherans, Reformed and Baptists, believed and worshipped
unmolested.

Little else to brag of! In 1750 Pastor Stouber found
the master of the chief school dozing feebly in his old age —
a poor shrivelled mortal, so many years too ancient to take
care of the swine that he had been sent to look after the
children. Stouber left in 1767, and was succeeded in his
charge by Oberlin, then in his seven-and-twentieth year ; an

'Si?] PASTOR OBERLIN 159

able man,1 who had picked up all sorts of useful knowledge
at Strasburg, and who took an amazing interest in his wild
parishioners. Pastor by authority, counsellor and comforter
by the grace of God, he became physician, farmer, mechanic,
pedagogue for their behoof; took powder and pick, and
shamed them into blasting rocks and levelling roads,
especially got them to understand the money value of
direct communication with Strasburg ; threw a bridge —
the Pont de Charite — over the brawling Bruche ; started
credit stores for ploughs, harrows, axes, spades, and other
field tools ; set up a loan bank ; sent off likely lads to learn
the craft of carpenter and mason, glazier, smith, and cart-
wright ; persuaded them into building themselves healthy
houses ; bought a fire-engine — two, one for swift transit over
the hills ; stimulated them by sheer force of example into
experiments in tree-culture and fruit-growing — so that now
you catch glimpses of the straw-roofed cottages half hidden in
orchards of pear and cherry among the natural pines and
boulders. The youthful candidates for confirmation were
expected to bring with them certificates that they had each
planted two young trees.2 In a little he got his people to
open real schools — infant schools too, the first of the kind,
with "conductresses" to train in sewing and spinning, to
tell stories, to teach songs and hymns, and geography
" made easy" by means of wooden models of the mountain
region of the Rock, and, perhaps most important of all, to
teach French, for the speech of the Steinthal (Valley of

1 One of an able family evidently; his elder brother, Jeremias Jacob, antiquary and
philologist, author of various archaeological and statistical works, editor of valuable
editions of Tacitus, Horace, and other classics, prisoner at Metz in the days of the
Terror, still figures in the cyclopedias and biographies. He died in 1806.

2 In one of his customary catechetical " Pastorals " Oberlin asks his parishioners : —
" II. Do you punctually contribute your share towards the repair of the roads?

" 12. Have you, in order to contribute to the general good, planted upon the
common at least twice as many trees as there are heads in your family ?

" 13. Have you planted them properly, or only as idle and ignorant people would
do, to save themselves trouble ?

" 17. Are you frugal in the use of wood ?

"19. Have you proper drains in your yard for carrying off the refuse water?"
— Memoir of John Frederic Oberlin, Pastor of Waldbach (1830), p. 271. f1

160 THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST [1804-

Stone), as the Germans called the place, was a twelfth-
century dialect, a singular survival of the ancient corrupted
Latin.1 Itinerating libraries were another of his ingenious
notions. The virtues of the local plants and flowers were
made familiar to the younger generation — useful knowledge
when they came to add straw-plaiting, knitting, and dyeing
to their industries ; invaluable knowledge in the wet years of
famine, when even potatoes were falling short. The con-
dition of the villagers steadily improved ; they no longer
needed to borrow each other's clothes when they wanted to
go to church. In time also the dignities of mayor and
schoolmaster were covered by one hat ; toothless caducity,
with some experience in swine-herding, was no longer
deemed a qualification for the post of teacher.

Fifteen and a half years of happy married life ; nine
beloved children, the youngest ten weeks old; and in
January 1784 Madame Oberlin passed into that "other room
where those we love become invisible to our earthly eyes."
That he and she might not long be separated from each
other, "that the death of one might quickly and very
quickly follow that of the other," was part of the prayer
which he wrote for their marriage morning. He survived
her more than forty .years. During that time he became
more and more really and intimately the cher Papa of his
people, whose numbers had largely increased under his wise
and loving shepherding. The Revolution brought trials
and troubles ; but if he lost his ministerial stipend, he was
at least permitted the unique favour of continuing his minis-
trations. Ci-devants and refugees, in their flight from the
red night-cap and the tumbrils, found shelter under his
poor but hospitable roof. In 1795 when the churches were
re-opened he declined to touch his official salary. His people
knew the way to his door, and, as their means allowed, they

1 J. J. Oberlin, Essai sur le Patois Lorrain des Environs du Comtt! du Ban de la
Roche. 1775.

,8i7] OBERLIN AND THE R.T.S. 161

were at liberty to assist in his support. The prayer of faith
was his magic wand and Fortunatus' cap. It enabled him,
when machinery had destroyed his hand-spinning of cotton,
to spirit silk-ribbon mills from the Rhine to the Stone Valley,
and to plant a loom in every cottage ; and when the assignats
lost their value and threatened to bring the curse of bank-
ruptcy on the country, he managed in the course of twenty-
five years to redeem all the assignats of the Ban and some
of the surrounding parishes.

A shrewd, grave, strenuous, great-hearted, apostolic
figure among these rocky villages in the Field of Fire ; a
phenomenal figure anywhere ; walking in the light of the
Spirit ; believing first and wholly and above all else that God
is Father — "Our Father," he would say, "and thus we
may always feel Him ; " mystical too and fanciful in a half-
childish, half-inspired fashion ; guiding his conduct, like
Wesley, "by drawing lots or watching the particular texts
at which his Bible opened ; " x now giving up coffee and
sugar in his horror of slavery ; now drawing, from the
symbolism of the Temple and the Book of the Revelation,
a map of the future world, to be hung up in his church.

He was in friendly communication with the Religious
Tract Society as early as 1803 — introduced, one conjectures,
by their new foreign Secretary, Mr Steinkopff. In their
minutes of a December meeting in that year there is record
of £20 sent by Mr Dale of Glasgow "as an aid to Mr J. F.
Oberlin in distributing Bibles." His early letter giving
account of the good women to whom he intended to present
Bibles was written in November the following year, in
acknowledgment of a gift of ^30, possibly from the same
generous benefactor. The first grant from the Bible Society
was made in April 1805. Assisted by his youngest son,
Henry Gottfried, Oberlin founded a little society at
Waldbach, and in connection with it depositories were

1 Green, Short History of the English People, p. 719.
VOL. I. L

162 THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST [,804-1817

established in different parts of France, and more than 10,000
copies of the New Testament were put in circulation.

In the years of which we are writing the Pastor of
Waldbach received no more notable visitor than that preach-
ing and prophetic enthusiast, Madame de Krudener. She
came with a letter of introduction from the famous Pietist
Jung-Stilling ; l and one is not surprised that she was filled
with amazement and admiration at all that had been ac-
complished in the Ban de la Roche by the self-sacrificing
labour of one man. " It is impossible not to feel a moment's
regret that this practical side of the ministry of Christ did not
tempt Madame de Krudener away from the visionary dream
of world-wide evangelisation which was beginning to take
shape in her eager heart and brain. Had all the leaders of
the Pietistic school in Germany been men of the scientific
attainments and broad sympathies of Jung-Stilling, or of the
splendid humanitarian zeal of Pastor Oberlin, the future
developments of the movement might have been very
different from what they ultimately became, and Madame de
Krudener herself might have been saved from many of the
errors of her religious teaching." :

Her we shall once again see for a passing moment, more
certain than ever of the approaching Millennium. And
as for the beloved Pastor — shall we bring this sketch to its
inevitable close? Not yet. For a little while let him linger
in our memory, a living man, in the land of the living, doing
with all the strength of his aged hands the will of Him
"which liveth and abideth for ever."

1 A memorable man, son of a charcoal burner in the mountain forest about Grund,
in Nassau ; himself a charcoal burner, then tailor and schoolmaster turn about as
occasion served ; found means to study medicine in Strasburg, where he became a
friend of Goethe's ; practised later at Elberfeld, and became Professor at Marburg
and Heidelberg. " A pious soul," says Carlyle (Afiscett., vol. iv. p. 163), " who, if
he did afterwards write books on the Nature of Departed Spirits, also restored to
sight (by his skill in eye-operations) above two thousand poor blind persons,
without fee or reward, even supporting many of them in the hospital at his own
expense." Born 1740; died at Karlsruhe 1817.

2 Ford, Life and Letters of Madame de Krudener, p. 104.

CHAPTER X

FROM SAGA-LAND TO KALMUK TENTS

THE Bible Society's connection with the peoples of the North
was brought about in a manner curiously providential ; and
the first information submitted to its notice related to the
condition of Iceland, that " wild land of barrenness and lava ;
swallowed many months of every year in black tempests, yet
with a wild gleaming beauty in the summer-time ; towering
up there, stern and grim, in the North Ocean ; with its snow-
jokuls, roaring geysers, sulphur-pools and horrid volcanic
chasms, like the waste chaotic battle-field of Frost and Fire."1
Along the rim of grassy country between the mountains and
the sea men had lived for centuries in the faith of a gigantic
mythology, and had shaped their local history into sagas,
which even at this day may be read with a singular vivid-
ness of realization. In the early years of Christianity the
people were slow to surrender their dreams of Asgard and the
great Nature-gods; "they called Paul Odin, but Barnabas
they called Thor ; the latter was long invoked by the
traveller and the soldier before deeds of 'derring-do,' whilst
Jesus was prayed to in matters of charity and beneficence."2

Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, at the
Reformation, Christian III. ordered a school to be built near
each cathedral church ; a translation of the New Testament
was published by Oddr Gottskalksson in I54O;3 the whole

1 Carlyle, Heroes and Hero- Worship, Lect. i.

2 Burton, Ultima Thule, vol. i. p. 94.

3 Only three copies are known to exist — one at Reykjavik, another at the
Deanery of Hruni, and the third in Glasgow. — Ultima Thule, vol. ii. p. 10, «.

163

1 64 FROM SAGA-LAND TO KALMUK TENTS [,8o4-

Bible, "a faithful mirror of Luther's German version," was
printed at Holar, in 1584, under the revision of the Bishop,
Gudbrand Thorlaksson, who in 1609 issued also a corrected
version of the New Testament. Five-and-thirty years later a
revised edition of Gudbrand's Bible was produced by his
grandson -and successor, Bishop Thorlak Skurlason, and this
text was adopted in the edition of 1747 published at Copen-
hagen. In 1750, 2000 copies of the New Testament were
printed ; but at the date of which we are writing, among a
population of about 47,000, with 300 parish churches, the
Scriptures were not to be had for any money ; there were not
more than forty or fifty copies of the Bible in the whole
island ; the old printing-press was no longer workable ; and
as no people in the world were fonder of reading — and
scarcely one child in a hundred above twelve years of age
could not read and write — they were endeavouring to supply
the place of printed books by a recurrence to transcriptions
as in the old saga-days.

This information, as we have said, reached the London
Committee in a curiously providential manner. In August
1805 the Rev. John Paterson,1 with his young colleague,
the Rev. Ebenezer Henderson,2 sailed from Leith to
Elsinore, on their way to Serampore, as missionaries from
the Congregational churches in Edinburgh. It was still the
evil days when the East India Company, in its dread of
"losing our Indian Empire" if an attempt were made to

1 Born in humble circumstances in Old Kilpatrick, near Glasgow, 26th July
1776 ; at the age of eighteen, after serving his apprenticeship to a handicraft, he
attended the College session at Glasgow University; and in 1800 began his studies
in Dundee as one of Mr Robert Haldane's candidates for the ministry. In 1803
he succeeded in forming a church on the Congregational model at Cambuslang, a few
miles from Glasgow, and, in the following year, having beerr invited to go out to
India as one of the missionary agents of the two Congregational churches in
Edinburgh, he selected Mr Henderson as his colleague.

2 Mr Henderson's early history is somewhat similar to that of his friend. The
youngest son of an agricultural labourer, he was born near Dunfermline, I7th Nov.
1784 ; had some experience of the crafts of bootmaker and watchsmith ; was out with
the Volunteers during the invasion scare of 1803, and in the same year, having
seriously turned his thoughts to the ministry, he entered the Seminary which had been
originated and was still supported by Robert Haldane.

i8i7] J- PATERSON AND E. HENDERSON 165

convert the natives to Christianity, peremptorily forbade the
presence of missionaries. The application of the earnest
evangelist, Robert Haldane, who had sold his estate of
Airthrey in order that he might lead a chosen band to the
East, met with a flat refusal ; and it was not until 1813 that,
in consequence of the resolute efforts of William Wilberforce,
supported by Charles Grant, Claudius Buchanan and Josiah
Pratt, provisions for the establishment of an Indian epis-
copate and for the removal of all obstacles to evangelisation
were inserted in the renewed Charter of the Company. But
if the English missionary was "a man forbid" on an English
deck, there were Danish ships, and Danish shores, by means
of which the Gospel might be carried to the millions who,

" From many an ancient river,
From many a palmy plain,"

were calling for deliverance.

Arrived at Copenhagen, however, they found they could
not embark until the following spring. The autumn and
the winter lay before them ; and their first Sabbath in the
Danish capital, with its busy shops and streets thronged
with traffic, its all but empty churches and listless
congregations drowsing through perfunctory sermons, con-
vinced them that "there was as much need for a missionary
in Copenhagen as in India."1 They threw themselves into
this unexpected field of usefulness ; but what seemed to
them a temporary mission proved to be the opening of a
new career. Changes began to affect the stability of the
Edinburgh churches, the official tie was gradually dis-
solved, and at last the two brethren were left to their
own resources. "We had previously been applied to to
give lessons to the young people in English," wrote Mr
Paterson, "and this we resolved to do. Our success was
such that we were able from this time forward to meet, in

1 Paterson, The Book for Every Land, p. 3.

166 FROM SAGA-LAND TO KALMUK TENTS [1804-

whole or in part, our own expenses until we came to be
supported by the Bible Society."

The work for which they were immediately designed,
however, was indicated to them before the year closed, in a
letter from the Rev. J. Campbell of the Religious Tract
Society: "Are Danish Bibles scarce in Denmark, or in any
particular part of Denmark? . . . What is the state of
religion in Norway? Are Bibles scarce there? Would
Danish tracts be understood there? . . . Have you any
information respecting Sweden, Lapland, or Poland? By
strict attention to these subjects you may be the means
of doing incalculable good, for the people in London are
ready to undertake anything, with heart, hand, and purse,
which the Kingdom of our Lord may appear to require."
Through the good offices of Mr Reyner, of Old Swan
Stairs, they became acquainted with Justiciary Thorkelin,
Privy Keeper of the Royal Archives, who introduced them
to Bishop Bulle, Dr Mtinter (afterwards Bishop of Zealand),
and other learned men in Copenhagen. Mr Thorkelin,
himself an Icelander, gave them detailed information respect-
ing the condition of that island ; they ascertained too that
the Danish Evangelical Society, founded in the island of
Fiinen in the first year of the century, was on the point
of printing an edition of 2000 New Testaments in Icelandic.
All these particulars were laid before the Bible Society,
and after some correspondence with the Bishop of Iceland,
the Committee voted a grant of ^250, so that the edition
of 2000 should be increased to one of 5000 ; 2000 were to
be sent, bound at the Bible Society's expense, to certain
friends in Iceland who would be interested in their dis-
tribution ; and a further grant of ^300 was promised in
aid of an impression of an entire Icelandic Bible.

At the desire of the Fiinen Society, Mr Paterson under-
took to see the work through the press ; the books were
printed at Copenhagen, and 1500 were despatched by the

,817] COPENHAGEN BOMBARDED 167

ships which sailed for the island in the spring of 1807.
Five hundred, intended for the bishop, were detained for
a vessel which would touch at that part of the coast nearest
to the bishop's residence, and Mr Paterson was still await-
ing the hoisting of the blue-peter when an English fleet
appeared in the Sound — seven-and-twenty sail of the line
under Admiral Gambier, with 20,000 troops under the
command of Lord Cathcart.

This episode of the bombardment of Copenhagen,
which the Danes very naturally regarded as a wanton act
of piracy unworthy of a great naval Power, has been
presented in different lights by various writers. One of
the latest describes it as "a shameful deed of high-handed
violence."1 In his scheme for destroying English supremacy
on sea, Napoleon had not only required Denmark to close
her ports, he insisted that she should declare war with
England ; and Bernadotte was advancing to the Danish
border to enforce compliance. The danger of the Danish
fleet falling into the Emperor's hands was serious. What
was England to do? The course taken by the Ministry
was arbitrary, no doubt, but it was considerate ; and it
seemed the only practical course. They offered to defend
Denmark, to guarantee her colonies, to furnish her with
every assistance, if she would make a temporary surrender
of her fleet to Great Britain. So large a force was sent
that a plea of coercion would be justified, if the Danish
Ministers desired to propitiate Napoleon — and that actual
coercion would be inevitable, if the alternative became
necessary. Denmark refused the offer ; the British troops
were landed, and hostilities began.

Mr Henderson was at Elsinore, and afterwards crossed
to Sweden. Mr Paterson remained in the invested town.
The bombardment began between seven and eight o'clock
on the evening of the 3rd September, and he left his lodg-

1 Sloane, Life of Napoleon Bonaparte.

i68 FROM SAGA-LAND TO KALMUK TENTS [1804-

ings for the house of some friends. "I put my Bible in
my pocket, not knowing what would become of me, re-
solved to have it for my companion, living or dying."1 It
was a clear starry night, and the air seemed to be snowing
meteors, which occasionally burst overhead with a terrible
noise ; rockets rushed screaming to immense heights and
plunged down into the streets ; here and there houses
leaped up in a blaze. During the night the town was
fired in thirty different places, but the firemen kept the
flames under. "The cries of the sufferers were dreadful.
. . . The most awful storm of thunder and lightning I
ever witnessed was nothing to this." On the night of the
4th, when darkness had fallen, the sky was so lit up by
the burning town, and especially the vast wood - yard
outside the walls, that, though it was wet and cloudy,
"we could see the ships plainly at sea some miles off."
Curious to think that the commander of those ships was a
Vice-President of the Bible Society, and that it was an
agent of the Society who was watching the shells and red-
hot balls which they flung into the doomed town ! About
four in the morning the spire of the beautiful Lady Church
was in a blaze — a colossal torch, 250 feet of flame, burning
at a height of 380 feet. The copper with which the timber
was sheathed "gave the flame all the variegated colours
of the prism." On the 7th the English took possession of
the citadel, dockyards, and 18 ships of the line, 21 frigates,
6 brigs, and 25 gun-boats, besides an immense amount of
naval stores. About 1700 of the townspeople had been
killed, and fire had destroyed nearly 400 houses, one
church, a great part of the University, and a number of
fine collections of books, manuscripts, paintings, natural
curiosities, etc. Yet, strange to say, in the midst of so
much ruin the Icelandic Testaments were unscathed. Two
bombs penetrated the house where the unbound sheets of

1 Paterson, The Book for Every Land, p. 36.

,8i7] BIBLE WORK IN STOCKHOLM 169

3000 copies were lying, and the warehouse where the
bishop's 500 copies were stored was nearly burnt to the
ground, "that part only escaping where they were
standing." 1

Recognising that he could no longer, with comfort or
safety, continue his labours in Denmark, Mr Paterson left
Copenhagen, and on his way to join Mr Henderson in
Sweden he saw the English men-of-war with their captured
fleet, and beheld that remarkably large and brilliant comet
which even then, as in the days of Du Bartas, was believed
to portend

" Famine, plague, and war ;
To Princes, death ; to Kingdoms, many crosses ;
To all Estates, inevitable losses."

He found his colleague established as minister of the
English, or rather Scottish, Colony at Gothenburg, and he
determined himself to proceed to Stockholm, where he
hoped to do something for the circulation of religious tracts
and the printing and distribution of the Scriptures. In
this course he was supported not only by his friends in
Scotland, but by the Bible Society and the Religious Tract
Society in London.

The printing of the Icelandic Bible had unhappily to be
suspended in consequence of the hostilities between the two
countries, but at Stockholm in the course of little more than
a month Mr Paterson had so completely brought home
to those in influential places the religious destitution of the
people, that on the 29th February 1808, the Swedish
Evangelical Society was founded, under the sanction of the
King and the Privy Council. By a fundamental law of its
constitution its Bible work and its Tract department were
kept separate, and each had its distinct account of income
and expenditure. The dearth of the Scriptures was extra-

1 This is but one of several similar incidents in the history of the Society.

170 FROM SAGA-LAND TO KALMUK TENTS [1804-

ordinary in a country in which there was no restriction or
monopoly in regard to printing the Bible. Among the
whole population, not one family in ten, it was estimated,
possessed a copy ; and among the peasantry not one in
twenty had either Bible or Testament. Here, too, there
was the same impoverishment as elsewhere in Europe ; and
with its customary benevolence the Bible Society voted a
grant of ^300, and the Swedish Evangelical Society set
itself to the task of providing and distributing the
Scriptures.

February, March, and April were filled with the rumours
of coming trouble. In the Treaty of Tilsit it had been
arranged that if Sweden refused to join France and Russia
against England, the Czar was to declare war, and to take
Finland as his share of the booty. In his chivalrous reckless-
ness and impracticable mysticism, Gustavus IV. of Sweden
was the last man to yield to Bonaparte. After the murder
of the Duke of Enghien he had dismissed the French
ambassador and recalled his own from Paris, had returned
the King of Prussia his order of the Black Eagle — " he never
could, according to the laws of knighthood, consent to be
brother Companion of an assassin," — and had vowed ever-
lasting enmity to the Great Beast of the Apocalypse. And
now here were the Beast, "and the kings of the earth, and
their armies, gathered together to make war against him " !
The long frost had closed the Sound and the Gulf of Bothnia.
Russia was marching from the east ; the fortress of Sveaborg
on its rocky islets was treacherously sold ; Abo was beset ;
troops had crossed the ice to Aland ; and the French, massed
in Zealand and Elsinore, were on the point of attacking,
when the Sound broke up, and the English battle-ships
bore down through the wintry sea.

During the campaign with Russia which followed, the
Swedes fought with desperate valour, but under the pressure
of overwhelming numbers they evacuated Finland, and that

i8i7] TOUR IN SWEDEN AND LAPLAND 171

province was lost for ever. The King", who appears to have
been more busied with apocalyptic visions than with the
peril of his throne, was seized by one of his own generals
on the 1 5th March 1809, and forced to sign his abdication.
Thenceforth, poor phantom, he became a wanderer over
Europe, until, as Colonel Gustafsson, he laid his discrowned
head to rest at St Gall, in 1837. Duke Charles of
Sudermania was proclaimed his successor, under the title
of Charles XIII. ; as he was childless, Prince Christian
Augustus of Augustenburg was elected Crown Prince ; and
at the close of 1809 peace was concluded between Sweden
and Denmark. The Prince died suddenly in the following
spring,1 and Marshal Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's greatest
and bravest generals, was chosen in his place. The best
possible thing that could happen for Sweden ; for this son
of a Beam lawyer gave himself heart and sword to his new
country ; was not to be brow-beaten by a dozen emperors —
"Napoleon has thrown down the gauntlet, and I will take
it up ! " — and set himself to prepare for the end, which was
nearer than men thought.

Meanwhile Paterson and Henderson had started in the
summer of 1808 on a tour of 2300 miles in the north. They
travelled through a considerable part of the ancient province
of Dalecarlia, where bread was made of fir-tree bark and
the inhabitants of each parish all dressed alike, every parish
having its particular colour. At Hernosand they met Bishop
Nordin, the only person in Sweden authorised to print any
book in Lapponese, and interested him in the projects and
operations of the Bible Society. From him they ascertained
that there were 10,000 Laplanders who knew no tongue but
their own. The first and only edition of the Lapp New
Testament had been issued in 1755, and was nearly

1 Poisoned, it was wildly rumoured ; and the mob, suspecting Count Axel
Fersen, tore the proud old aristocrat to pieces in the streets. Such was the end of
the deft "Glass-coachman" who drove a Queen, "in gipsy-hat," through Paris and
out into " the ambrosial night" eighteen years before. — Carlyle, The French Revolution,
vol. ii. p. 137.

172 FROM SAGA-LAND TO KALMUK TENTS [,804-

exhausted. An edition of the whole Bible was now
passing through his own press at Hernosand. They made
an excursion into Lapland ; entered Finland from Tornea,
and hoped to go as far south as Abo, but the advance of the
Russian troops left no alternative but a precipitate flight.1

On receiving information regarding the condition of the
Laplanders, the Bible Society promptly arranged for an
edition of 5000 copies of the New Testament, and voted a grant
of ^250. The work was completed under the supervision of
Bishop Nordin in 1811. Half of the impression was sent
into Swedish Lapland at the public expense, and was
distributed, not at the winter markets in the towns, but by
inland carriers, who thus brought the books within reach of
those who would prize them most in the remote parishes.
The distribution was seen to by the Royal Chancery, from
whom a letter had been received by the Evangelical Society
at Stockholm, expressing the satisfaction of the King that so
much thought was being bestowed on the religious welfare
of his Lapp subjects. From the favourable disposition shown
by the Russian Government, which authorised the free im-
portation of copies into Russian Lapland, and also engaged
to forward them to their destination, the Society derived
a hope that it would not be long before Russia itself would
adopt the motto of "The Bible for all, without note or
comment." Measures were likewise taken to disperse a
thousand copies in Danish Lapland.

Thus once more the Word of Life, at a time when human
foresight could have least expected it, was scattered broadcast
among the Lapps of the tent and the Lapps of those earthen
huts overgrown with grass, which, with their dwarfish
masters in deer-skin shirts and high blue caps, are believed to
have suggested the old folk-tales of pigmies, and to be the
originals of the green mounds of the fairies.2

1 Peace between Russia and Sweden was concluded on the 1 7th September 1 809.

2 Campbell, Tales of the West Highlands, vol. i. p. 14.

I8i7] "THEY SENT US THE BIBLE" 173

In 1812 a grant of ^100 was placed at the disposal of the
Stockholm Society, for the benefit of the indigent in Lapland,
but the Swedish Chancery, which had already expressed its
admiration of the generosity of the London Committee,
thankfully declined the grant and undertook to supply the
poor with the Scriptures out of its own funds.

In August 1809 Mr Paterson was happily married to
Katrine Margarate Hollinder, at Stockholm ; and in a
sympathetic letter his friend Henderson, after wishing him
every blessing, reminded him of the slenderness of the tie
which bound her to the earth. " It may be useful to begin
early to familiarise yourself with the thought that you must
part again for a season," he wrote, and the words proved
touchingly prophetic of the bereavement which was to
come.

Early in 1810 Sweden was constrained to declare war
against England, but this hostile attitude was little more
than formal. The ravages of war, famine, and pestilence
among the Swedes and Finns had for several years excited
the compassion of England, and the order for the war-
prayer was met with a warm remonstrance among the
Dalecarlians. "War with the English? We were starving,
and they sent us food ; our souls were perishing, and they
sent us the Bible. No, we cannot pray against our best
friends." The declaration of war, however, had reconciled
the opposite shores of the Sound ; the King of Denmark
granted Mr Henderson leave to live in Copenhagen in
order that he might superintend the printing of the Ice-
landic Bible ; and the Society directed that 5000 additional
copies of the New Testament should be printed from the
same type.

Matters, in the interim, were progressing at Stockholm.
In March 1810 the first edition of the Swedish Testament
was completed ; a second of 4000 copies was undertaken
without delay, and the printing of the Old Testament had

174 FROM SAGA-LAND TO KALMUK TENTS [1804-

been begun. By the spring of 1811 a fourth edition of
6000 New Testaments was in the press, and although
10,600 copies had already been distributed, the demands
from all quarters seemed to be overwhelming. The list
of Swedish contributors to the Evangelical Society, or the
Swedish Bible Society, as it was afterwards called, included
persons of every rank and condition, from the highest nobles
and dignitaries to the poorest servants. Donations had
also been received from Scotland, and from friends on the
Continent, whereby the society had been enabled to make
gratuitous distributions of the New Testament among sea-
faring Swedes and the distressed and indigent refugees
who had escaped from the pillaged provinces of Finland.

It was about this time that the condition of the Finns
was brought before the Bible Society by a memorial of
Mr Paterson's, which had been forwarded from Stockholm.
There were, it was represented, no fewer than 1,300,000
who spoke the Finnish language ; no Bibles or Testaments
had been printed since 1776; for many years no Bible
had been offered for sale, and though possibly some few
copies of the New Testament might be had at Abo in
Finland itself, there was not one to be found in Stockholm.
It was pointed out that, as there was a disposition to close
Finland against books printed in Sweden, it was expedient
that any work decided upon should be undertaken at Abo.
The Committee authorised Mr Paterson to proceed at once
to Abo, and if needful to St Petersburg, to arrange for an
edition of the Finnish Bible. A grant of ,£500 was voted
for the purpose, and the formation of a society was strongly
urged. In August 1811, he ran the gauntlet of the English,
who were patrolling the Gulf in gunboats and swarms
of captured Finnish small craft ; reached Abo, enlisted
Bishop Tengstrom's interest in the objects of the Society,
and, after laying the foundation of an Auxiliary for Finland,
visited the Governor of the province, Count Steinheil, who

I8i7] THE CZAR AND THE FINNS 175

received him with great cordiality, and promised to lay
his proposals before the Czar for his Majesty's approbation.
The Czar not only approved of the generous offer of the
London Committee, but, "inspired with the wish to assist
in promoting the circulation of the Holy Scriptures," was
graciously pleased to add 5000 roubles from his private
purse.

In the following year the Abo Bible Society was founded,
with Count Steinheil, the Governor-General, as president ;
and the Czar, in a letter to his Excellency, " being persuaded
that religion is the most powerful instrument of raising
the morals of a people, and that, when maintained in
purity, it is the strongest bond of support to the State,"
not only sanctioned the opening of subscriptions through-
out his Finnish dominions and the importation duty-free
of all articles necessary for the proposed edition of the
Bible, but graciously complied with the request that the
portion of corn tithes, which was originally appropriated to
printing the Holy Scriptures but which in latter years had
been used for State purposes, should be applied for five
years in aid of the edition. It is pleasant to think that
these tithes had now been restored to their old purpose,
and that once more the people were exchanging the food
of earth for the bread of the spirit. By the end of the
year the bishop, who was already dreaming of a quarto
Bible for use in the churches and for those who could
afford the luxury, was writing to express "the hearty
thanks which a grateful daughter offered for the liberality
of a most excellent and generous parent."

In those early years the name Finn vaguely suggested,
at the best, an unkempt, idolatrous, half - barbaric
people. With the exception of two or three scholars, no
one had heard of the strange old literature which had
lived from mouth to mouth for countless generations.
The epic runes of Vainamoinen and Ilmarinen were

1 76 FROM SAGA-LAND TO KALMUK TENTS [1804-

unknown.1 No stranger had listened to those marvellous
folk-lyrics, of which their laulaja sang: — " My songs are my
learning — my verses my goods ; from the roads did I dig
them, from green boughs did I pluck them, I wrenched
them from the heather plants, when a little one I was herd-
ing, a little child was tending lambs. Up from the honey-
mounds, across the golden hillocks, songs did the wind
waft me ; the air cradled them by hundreds ; verses
surged around me; sayings rained down like water."2
But among the people — who cherished them with a
secretive jealousy, — in tent or hut when the icy darkness
was flushed with the Northern Lights, beside the burning
brasier on green bank or sandy shore in the fishing season,
they were chanted for hours at a stretch by the untiring
runoiat, who, face to face and hand in hand, rocked in
cadence to the alliterative rhythm on which Longfellow
modelled his Song of Hiawatha. But times and tastes
were changing. Some years later an aged runoia lamented:
"The same store is not set nowadays on the old songs
as when I was a lad. Folk still sing at gatherings, but
seldom aught worth the hearing. The young people
hum songs more than light, that I would not soil my
lips with."3 Evidently the Finnish Bible was being pre-
pared at a seasonable moment.

1 Lonnrot's Kantele (a collection of Finnish songs of various kinds) was published
in 1829; the "old" Kalevala (32 cantos, 12,000 lines) in 1835; the Kanteletar
("the Daughter of the Dulcimer") in 1840; the complete Kalevala (50 cantos,
22,800 lines — 7000 more than the Iliad} in 1849. — Comparetti, The Traditional
Poetry of the Finns, p. 7.

2 Kalevala, i. 36 (see Comparetti, Miss Anderton's admirable English translation,
p. 20). That these folk-lyrics are marvellous let eight lines from one of the Songs
of Exile attest :

" O rarely here the sun doth shine !

Rarely the moonbeams gleam !

Rare is the cuckoo's voice divine,

Rare is the diver's scream !
Rarely the northern pike come near,

The salmon never come ;
The silver salmon swims not here,
He swims beside my home ! "

— Billson, The Popular Poetry of the Finns (Nutt).
:i Leouzon le Due, Le Kalevala, p. xiv.

i8,7] RUSSIA AND NAPOLEON 177

Early in the same year, 1812, Mr Paterson had
corresponded with the Committee regarding the expediency
of a journey to St Petersburg ; partly to promote the
interest of the Abo Society by superintending the prepara-
tion of type for the Finnish Bible, partly to see what could
be done in Russia itself. The Cabinet at St Petersburg
had already shown its cordiality towards the designs of
the Bible Society, and this evidence was strengthened by
the assurance of Baron Nicolai, the Russian ambassador
at Stockholm, to whom Paterson had been introduced by
Count Steinheil. The Baron strongly urged a visit to
the capital ; there was nothing to fear, even should things
continue as they then were ; at the same time, he plainly
hinted at the probability that peace would be established
between Russia and England and that Russia would
declare war against France. The extravagant demands
made on Russia by Napoleon could not be complied
with, and the cessation of trade with Great Britain was
at once exasperating the people and threatening the ruin
of the nobility, whose revenues depended on open markets
for their produce. "Spain with her guerilla system," he
observed, "has taught us how to resist the French."1
Russia had evidently planned her tactics in anticipation
of the disastrous campaign by which Bonaparte intended
to enforce the observance of his Continental System.2 If
any doubt were left in Paterson's mind that the time had
come when something should be attempted in Russia, it
was probably removed by a letter from Mr Pinkerton, who
for some time had been one of the Scottish missionaries
at Karass, but, in consequence of failing health, had
removed to Moscow, where he was employed as preceptor

1 Paterson, The Book for Every Land, p. 155.

3 There seems no reason to doubt that this was " /e motif le plus puissant qui
porta.it F Empereur a faire la guerre a la Russit" but it is not so clear that "/a
veritable cause du refus qriopposait Alexandre " was the dread of sharing the fate of
his father, the Czar Paul, who was charged with having ruined Russian commerce by
declaring war against England. — Marbot, Mcmoires, vol. iii. p. 37.

VOL. I. M

1 78 FROM SAGA-LAND TO KALMUK TENTS [1804-

in the families of several persons of distinction. In concert
with some of the first nobility he had taken measures for
the establishment of a Russian Bible Society on a large
scale, and he now considered that there was a prospect of the
general cause being advanced by Mr Paterson's presence in
the capital.

It had not been reserved, however, for either Mr
Paterson or Mr Pinkerton to take the first step on behalf
of the Society in Russia. As early as the spring of 1806
the Committee had been in correspondence with regard
to the condition of Esthonia, and the President had written
to the venerable Archbishop Plato in the interest of Russia
at large. Possibly on account of his extreme age — he was
then in the tenth year of his second century — the Arch-
bishop made no direct reply, but it was understood that
the communication had favourably impressed him, and that
it paved the way for subsequent negotiations.

As to Esthonia, the dearth of the Scriptures was so
serious that the Committee offered a grant in aid if a
Bible Society for the province were founded, but unhappily
the war in Prussia and Poland suspended intercourse, and
it was not till 1810 that fuller information was received
and a definite course of action became practicable. It was
now stated that in Esthonia and Livonia there were
400,000 families destitute of the Bible ; that the lower
classes, often more miserable than the negro slaves, and
as ignorant as they were poor, were hardly aware of its
existence ; that in some districts it was held a great thing
if they had been taught "Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt
not steal," for of the Redemption on the Cross, of Justifica-
tion, they had heard little. During the preceding forty
years almost all had been taught to read, but a Bible
cost about I2S. 6d., and was rare, while the New Testa-
ments of 1727 had long been exhausted. Probably no
more was then known of the inner life of the Lett and

I8l7] THE MISSION AT KARASS 179

Esthonian than of the Finn, but now at least we can
gather from their legends, folk-tales, and songs how capable
these poor peasants were of appreciating the simplicity
and beauty of the Bible story. Many of their clergy and
schoolmasters, it was reported, had been infected with
modern infidelity, but there were still many pious pastors
and teachers scattered over the country, some well-disposed
landowners, and thousands of worthy Christians who could
be depended on for co-operation and friendly aid.

In response to a conditional grant of ;£6oo, a society
was formed at Dor.pat in the following year for the express
purpose of printing the Scriptures in the dialects of Revel
and Dorpat for cheap or gratuitous distribution, and collec-
tions were undertaken in various parts of the district. To
ensure the speedy completion of the work the Committee
voted a further donation of ^400 ; and so, at length, a
goodly edition of 6000 Bibles and 20,000 New Testaments
was got under way.

In 1806, at the instance of the Scottish Missionary
Society, the heart of the Bible Society went out to the
lonely station of Karass, a Tartar village in the province
of Stavropol, which one may look for in vain in map,
gazetteer, or guide-book. It lies west of Georgievsk, and
about 30 miles from Kislavodsk — roughly, 42.30 E. and
44 N. — and takes its name from a Tartar sultan who, with
several of his sons, is buried a few versts north of the
village ; an interesting spot in the history of Missions.
Among the missionaries here were Mr Pinkerton, whose
name we have recently mentioned, and Mr Henry Brunton,
who some years earlier had seen service and had tragic
experience at Sierra Leone. Brunton had acquired Tartar-
Turkish in such idiomatic purity that by many of the
natives he was regarded as a renegade Turk. Using
Seaman's translation as a basis,1 he undertook a new

1 The version made by the Rev. William Seaman, chaplain to the English

i8o FROM SAGA-LAND TO KALMUK TENTS [1804-

version of the Testament, and in 1807 — in spite of the
difficulty of obtaining printing materials, the inclemency
of the weather which invaded their ill-built offices, and
the incursions of Tcherkess raiders — published a few
hundred copies of the Gospel of St Matthew. The Tartar-
Turkish, it was stated, extended not merely from the
Volga to the Black Sea, but through the greater part
of Persia ; was understood beyond the Caspian among
the Tartar tribes, whose dialects differed to the ear rather
than to the eye ; and was spoken over an area twice
as large as that of any other language, not except-
ing, perhaps, even the Chinese. Wherever there were
Mohammedans there were priests — scarce a village without
one — and where the priest was, the young had a teacher
of reading.

On the suggestion of the Scottish Missionary Society
the Committee voted a grant of ^650 for a fount of type
and paper enough for 5000 copies of the New Testament.
In the following year these supplies reached their destina-
tion ; by October 1810 the printers finished the Acts of
the Apostles ; two years later the volume was completed,
but the translator, who, like the Venerable Bede, lived
but long enough to finish his task, had already sung his
"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Ghost ! "

Here we should pause, but so little remains to tell of
Karass that it may as well be told now. In 1815 the
missionaries removed to Astrakhan, and the work of dis-
tribution was carried on rapidly and effectively. Testa-
ments were sent to Kazan, to Derbent, to Tabriz, to
Shirwan. Great eagerness was shown among the Persian

ambassador at the Porte, though not free from faults, eschewed the circumlocutory
refinements of the Turkish of Constantinople, to which, however, it was too closely
conformed to be easily understood by the Tartars. It was published at Oxford in
1666 at the expense of the Levant Company and of the Hon. Robert Boyle, whose
service to the cause of the Bible has been mentioned in our account of the Irish
Scriptures.

i8i7] THE MORAVIANS AT SAREPTA 181

merchants ; they came six or seven at a time to obtain
copies. One of them, who was visited by a Russian, was
found with a Testament open before him. How did he
like it? "The EfTendi took it up and kissed it; he liked
it well ; if he could have one in the Persian tongue he
would give much for it."

From this point the Tartar-Turkish Scriptures belong
to the story of the Russian Bible Society.

In 1806, too, the Committee were corresponding with
the pastors of Sarepta, a neat stone-built settlement of
the Moravian Brethren, founded in 1765 on the Volga,
just where the river, swerving eastward, completes the
boundary between Astrakhan and Saratov. The German
colonies along the great river were divided into thirteen
Protestant parishes, in which copies of the Scriptures were
sadly to seek, and the clergy were too poor to distribute
Bibles at their own expense. Supplies were despatched
from Halle on the orders of the Society, and the various
congregations subscribed, so that the books might be
gratuitously distributed. One of the pastors visited four
parishes, containing thirty-two villages scattered at great
distances from each other, and testified to the joy
and gratitude with which the unexpected gifts were
received.

Some portions of the Bible had been translated by the
Brethren into Kalmuk, but nothing had been printed, as
there was no printing press in the whole of that wild
region. The Committee granted a sum of money for the
purchase of a case of type from St Petersburg, and
encouraged the missionaries l to proceed with their labours.
The principal translator was Conrad Neitz, who for forty
years had been qualifying himself for a Kalmuk version,
and the Gospel of St Matthew was completed in 1812,

1 A vacancy which occurred in one of the parishes was filled by the Rev. Mr
Graff, who married Henrietta, one of Pastor Oberlin's daughters, and went out
to the Volga in 1 808.

182 FROM SAGA-LAND TO KALMUK TENTS [,804-

at which date the printing was transferred to the Russian
capital.

A deep interest was taken by the Committee in this
preparation of the Gospel for the Kalmuk wanderers of
the steppe — some sixty thousand, flitting with their brown
tents, their horses, and their cattle between Sarepta and
the Caucasus. Nomads in heart and soul, with the tradi-
tions of ten centuries, they had acquired a few luxuries
from their neighbours, but tilled lands and roofed walls
were to them abominations ; what they needed the women
could buy with the hides they tanned or the felt blankets
they made, the men with saddle-trees and wooden cups, or
perchance some curious smith-work in iron or silver.
Further north, in Samara, there were many Kalmuks who
had been baptised and for upwards of a hundred years
had worshipped according to the rites of the Russian
Church ; but of these little was known.

In. the year 1771, added the missionaries, about 65,000
families " left Russia," and were now under the protection
of China. " Left Russia" ! One thinks of the Flight of the
Kalmuck Khan'1 from the frozen Volga to the great shadows
of the Chinese Wall ; of the track through the thousand-
leagued deserts strewn with skeletons, drapery, household
effects, heaps of money, and marked here and there with
rings of bleaching bones grouped about a central patch of
grey ashes ; of the final rush of men and horses, of
Kalmuks and Bashkirs, to the heavenly lake, and the
clamour of the last mad conflict which incarnadined its
waters ; of the mighty columns of granite and brass which
tell of the safety, "after infinite sorrow," of the ancient
Children of the Wilderness, — one thinks, and marvels that
in less than forty years things like these should no longer
have been remembered.

However, they had "left Russia," and under the pro-

1 De Quincey, Works, vol. iv. , The Revolt of the Tartars.

1817] THE KALMUKS 183

tection of the Emperor Kien-loung, or rather of his son
Kia-king,1 still spoke the same language. Wherefore,
writes one missionary, "you are preparing the New Testa-
ment for a very numerous people," for the Kalmuks are but
a division of the great Mongol race, "who are distributed
into Mongols Proper, Buriats, and Kalmucks, and these,
whatever their differences in religion, manners, and mode
of life, have the same written language in common."
Information which, in spite of assurances to the contrary, is
by no means accurate, but which in the meanwhile is vividly
interesting and stimulative.

This, then, is the condition of Biblical affairs in Russia
when Mr Paterson is making ready to start for St
Petersburg. Before leaving Stockholm (which he did on
loth July 1812), he hurried down to Helsingborg to meet
Mr Henderson and Mr Steinkopff, the Foreign Secretary,
and there they " related to each other the great things which
God had done for the Society," and deliberated on the best
means of advancing its interests. Mr Steinkopff was on
his first official tour among the foreign Auxiliaries, but this
is matter for another chapter.

1 " 1796, Feb. 8th, first day of the Chinese year ; abdication of Kien-loung,
in favour of his son Kia-king, now three hundred and fourth Chinese Emperor." —
Pickering, Chron. Hist, of Plants.

CHAPTER XI

THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (l.)

FROM the farewell letters which passed between them it is
evident that both Mr Steinkopff and his colleagues regarded
this tour as an adventure of serious hazard and real personal
danger. "The safety of your person and the success of your
undertaking," wrote the latter, "will dwell in the hearts and
engage the prayers of all your fellow-labourers in the service
of the Society"; and "Oh," replied the Foreign Secretary,
"that He may give me the simplicity of the dove, and the
wisdom of the serpent, the courage of the lion and the meek-
ness of the lamb — that whilst I use every prudent precaution
and do not plunge myself into needless danger, I may be
willing to sacrifice ease, convenience, and earthly comfort,
and even liberty and life itself, in this blessed service ! "
And indeed, quite apart from the risks of a journey through
countries over-run by rapacious troops, and the gangs of
ruffians who follow the track of an army, there was a grave
peril in every movement that brought on the traveller the
suspicion of the French Government.

Mr Steinkopff left London on the i2th June 1812,
reached Gothenburg in safety, stayed a little while in
Copenhagen, and proceeded through Germany to Switzerland.
He was fully accredited the Agent of the Society, with
plenary powers to take in its name such measures as might
seem to him calculated to promote the accomplishment of
its object. The journey occupied six months, and he
expended over £2700 in encouraging the formation of

181

1804-1817] ACTIVITY OF THE BASEL B.S. 185

Bible Societies, in making grants in aid, and in supplying
the Scriptures where they were most pressingly needed. He
gathered on the spot and from the best informed people a
variety of information which largely facilitated the operations
of the Society in the future.

Stockholm he was unable to visit, but he made inquiries
which justified him in announcing to the Swedish Evangeli-
cal Society a grant of ,£300, and in assisting several worthy
clergymen to present Testaments to their poor parishioners.
He concerted measures with Mr Henderson for the more
expeditious production of the Icelandic Bible, presented £120
to the Danish Evangelical Society at Fiinen, which had
contributed generously to the Icelandic project, and strongly
urged the benefit of a Bible Society in the capital. He met
Dr Knapp and his friends at Halle, arranged for the forma-
tion of a Bible Committee in connection with the Canstein
Institution, and started its fund with a donation of ^50.
At Basel, where he repeatedly met the executive of the oldest
of the continental societies, he found that during the six years
of their operations they had published 12,000 copies of the
German Bible (9350 of which had been sold, and 1500 dis-
tributed gratuitously), 4000 French Testaments, 3000 French
Bibles, 4000 Romanese Testaments (2000 in each dialect),
and 3000 Italian Testaments. He presented the executive
with ^"300 for the printing of the Roumansch Old Testament ;
^"200 for the gratuitous distribution of German Bibles and
Testaments among the poor ; ^"200 to aid the printing of
10,000 German Bibles in a small format; and, later, the
London Committee voted a grant of ^500 for promoting the
circulation of the Scriptures in France. Two of the Basel
committee, he learnt, had gone to Paris to arrange for the
printing of a stereotype New Testament there ; they had
formed a French Bible Committee, and now, in November
1812, they were awaiting the sanction of the French Minister
of Police for its legal establishment.

1 86 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (i.) [1804-

The Basel brethren had likewise succeeded in founding
an Auxiliary at Chur (Coire) the capital of the Grisons,
by which both the printing and the circulation of the Chur-
welsche and Ladin versions would be greatly facilitated ;
and they had recently been devoting their attention to the
condition of the Waldenses, among whom in despite of their
poverty there still survived — as might well be expected
from the children of those

"slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lay scattered on the Alpine mountains cold " —

a traditional love of the sacred writings and a keen desire
to obtain them.

Circumstances prevented Mr Steinkopff from visiting the
Prussian Society at Berlin; but notwithstanding the calami-
ties which had befallen the kingdom and the protracted
sequence of hostilities, that society had completed the printing
of 3000 Bohemian and 8000 Polish Bibles, and of 4000 Polish
Testaments, and was now engaged on the second edition
of the Bohemian Bible, the completion of which was
anxiously desired not only by the Protestant churches but
by many Roman Catholics in Prague and Berlin. The more
the Polish Scriptures were known, the more they were sought
after, and Mr Steinkopff directed a considerable consign-
ment to be forwarded to Kfcnigsberg for distribution by
the committee in that city, while for the poor of Berlin
he transmitted ^75 to be spent on Canstein Bibles. The
Committee at home, moved by the unhappy condition of
Prussia, voted ^250 in aid of the new edition (5000 copies)
of the Bohemian Scriptures.

Neither was our traveller able to reach Pressburg,
where under the patronage of the Baroness de Zay, and
with the help of a grant of ^"500 from the Bible Society,
the Hungarian Bible Institution had been established in
August 1811. There were upwards of a million and a

i8i7] OPERATIONS IN HUNGARY 187

half of Protestants in Hungary, but owing to the fierce
religious persecutions of old days, and the restrictions
which still existed, there were but few copies of the
Scriptures in that country.1 The feeling which the
prospect awakened in Hungary is expressed in a letter
from Professor Palkovitch, who occupied the chair of
Sclavonic Literature at Pressburg : — "Our Huss was the
faithful disciple and constant follower of your countryman
Wicliff. From you the first rays of the light of Holy
Scripture penetrated to us. Now after a lapse of four
centuries you are preparing again to confer upon us this
gift." Notwithstanding the ruthlessness of the Roman
Catholics of a bygone generation, it was now anticipated that
the Biblical movement would have the support of all de-
nominations of Christians ; the Emperor had authorised the
Hungarian Bible Institution to establish a press of its
own — a privilege never granted before ; and in the mean-
while operations began with the purchase of Sclavonic
Bibles, for sale at a very cheap rate among the poor. In
1814 Mr Pinkerton discovered at Utrecht 2000 copies of
the 1794 edition of the authorised Hungarian Bible, and
these copies were bought up by the London Committee
and transmitted to Pressburg.2 For several years, how-
ever, little more was heard of the Hungarian Bible Institu-
tion. The brethren in London could not but be grieved
and disappointed, but doubtless they took courage in the
thought that the issue of all their enterprises was in the

1 Joseph II. accorded in his edict of toleration (agth October 1781) the free
exercise of religion, but a distinction was maintained between a free and a public
exercise. In 1791 an end was put to this difference, and to the jurisdiction of
Catholic bishops, yet until 1844 the limitation remained that the king's consent was
necessary in any change from Catholicism to one of the Protestant creeds. It was
not till 1848 that the Evangelical Churches were placed on a footing of equality and
identical freedom with other recognised Churches. — Jekelfalussy, The Millennium of
Hungary and its People (Budapest), p. 290.

2 The first edition of the whole Bible in Magyar — the present " authorised "
version of Hungary — was made in 1589, by Gaspard Karolyi, pastor of the church at
Gonz, and Dean of the Brethren of the Valley of Kaschau, who in his youth had
imbibed the principles of the Reformation at the University of Wittenberg. — Bagster,
p. 326.

1 88 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (i.) [1804-

hands of Him who knows the changes of the times and
the seasons.1

At Ratisbon Mr Steinkopff was strongly solicited for aid
in making a more general gratuitous distribution of the New
Testament among Roman Catholics, but as the Ratisbon
Bible Society was wholly under priestly control, he was
unable to comply officially with the request, though he
afforded assistance by means of a private subscription from .
German and Danish friends. In the case of another Roman
Catholic, the Rev. Leander Van Ess, Professor of Divinity
in the University of Marburg, the same difficulty did not
occur. Dr Van Ess, with the assistance of several German
divines, had produced a version of the New Testament,
which met with approval from both Catholics and
Protestants ; he had already distributed 20,000 copies on
his own initiative, but among so many these were but
as rain-drops in the sea. He appealed to the Society for
means to spread the best of all gifts among the thousands
who still lacked it. All earthly comforts, he wrote, were
vanishing from the children of men ; ill-treated, plundered
and heavy-laden as they were, "their eyes, full of tears,
looked for refreshment and comfort towards the realms
above, where alone they were to be found." Mr Steinkopff
allotted him £200 for the distribution of 3000 copies
among his co-religionists, on condition that the few notes
which he had appended to the text were deleted. Shortly
afterwards Dr Van Ess received a further grant of ^300,

1 From the blood-stained history of religion in Hungary one incident may be
recorded as typical of the days of persecution. When Count Francis Nadasdy,
who ruined partly or wholly 200 churches on his estate, extruded Pastor Stephen
Pilarick of Beczko, he had all the pastor's books taken to his castle to be burned on
the floor of the great hall. The Bible was put on a spit and slowly consumed before
the fire in the presence of the Count and his retinue. A sudden gust stripped away
a number of half-burned leaves, and one, which fell fluttering on the Count's breast,
was caught by him. Examining the charred fragment, he read the words in Isaiah
xl. 8 : " The grass withereth, the flower fadeth : but the word of our God shall stand
for ever." Drawn in later years into insurrection, he closed his life on the scaffold.
His last words as he laid his head on the block were : " The Lord is just in all His
ways." — Wylie, The History of Protestantism, vol. iii. p. 238.

i8i7] SPREAD OF BIBLE SOCIETIES 189

and in the following year yet another of an equal amount,
and subsequently, as we shall see, he was more fully
engaged in the service of the Society.

In the course of his tour the Foreign Secretary laid
the foundation of several new organisations. At Zurich,
under Antistes or Chief Pastor Hess, a Bible Committee
had been formed, and Mr Steinkopff presented them with
^250 to proceed with the printing of a large edition of
the German Bible — a grant which in the next year was
augmented by another ^250 from the London Committee.

At Stuttgart, the capital of Wiirtemberg, an influential
Bible Committee .was constituted, and only awaited the
sanction of the King to expand into a society for the
whole kingdom. An edition of 10,000 German Bibles
was arranged for, and Mr Steinkopff, mindful no doubt
of his happy student days, " tactusque soli natalis amore,"
not only made a grant of ^200 (which was supplemented
by another of ^250 in the following year from the London
Committee), but provided 4500 Bibles and Testaments
for free distribution, or sale at very low prices, among
the poor. Similar Bible Committees were organised at
Frankfort, Osnaburg, Altona, and in Swedish Pomerania,
to each of which he presented ^50 ; and in addition to
various small sums left in charge of discreet agents, he
ordered 5375 copies of the Scriptures — 3425 Bibles and
1950 Testaments — to be distributed from Halle or Basel
among the people in Hanover, Gottingen, Neudietendorf,
Dresden, Leipzig, Miiselwitz, Schaffhausen, St Gall, and
the Grand Duchy of Baden.

During these months, while this obscure traveller
pursued his course from town to town, sowing the seeds
of a great Biblical revival, the destinies of the world were
trembling in the balances of the high heavens. "The
throne was prepared for judgment." In the South the
Whirlwind listened for a word ; in the North the Cold

igo THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (i.) [1804-

awaited commandment. Mighty Ones entered into the
store-houses of the snow ; they saw the treasures of
the hail reserved against the time of trouble, against
the day of battle and war. The hour had come when
the unseen Summoners should be obeyed, and the man
should go forth to his fate. For, like Caligula, to
whose disordered brain the Sea came in some strange
personal shape and spoke words of terror, Napoleon had
heard mysterious voices, citing him from the unknown.
He would start up suddenly from a doze crying, " Who
calls me? Who calls me?" and then drop off to slumber
again.

On the last day of May 1812 the Emperor had entered
Poland, and his legions — 498,000 strong — were in full
march for the Niemen. In warlike splendour, and with
the revolting arrogance of the foredoomed, they had swept
through Prussia, devouring the last truss of straw, the last
blade of grass. Troop by troop, day after day, the masses
had rolled on without ceasing. Never had the people seen
so prodigious an army — men of all nations, soldiers in every
kind of uniform, generals in hundreds. Their passing
was like the migration of hordes of wild beasts and birds
of prey. From the field-marshal to the sutler they were
insatiable. " The officers obliged the wife of a poor
village pastor to cook their ham in red wine. They drank
the richest cream out of the pitchers, and poured essence
of cinnamon over it ; the common soldiers, even to the
drummer, blustered if they had not two courses. They
ate like madmen. But even then the people prognosticated
that they would not so return. And they said so them-
selves. When formerly they had marched to war with
their Emperor, their horses had neighed whenever they
were led from the stable ; now they hung their heads
sorrowfully. Formerly the crows and ravens flew the
contrary way to the army of the Emperor ; now these

i8i7] PATERSON'S ARRIVAL IN RUSSIA 191

birds of the battle-field accompanied the army to the east,
expecting their prey."1

The invasion began on the 24th of June. Napoleon
himself crossed the Niemen near Kowno. At the head
of his appalling myriads the Despot of Europe was
challenged by a solitary Cossack on the Russian bank
of the river. A braggart reply was flung back ; the scout
gazed a moment, then wheeled his horse round and galloped
away. No other enemy was seen. The day was marked
by another incident. As it closed, a terrific thunder-
storm burst upon the invaders, and for fifty leagues round
the country was deluged. These things might have been
taken for a portent, for these — the primeval forces of nature,
and the barbaric riders of the Steppe, who seemed scarcely
less primeval — were the unconquerable foes awaiting
Bonaparte in the inhospitable region of swamps, pine-
forests, and deserts into which he was plunging.

The Grand Army was at Wilna when Mr Paterson,
accompanied by his wife, left Stockholm on the roth July.
In the first week of August he reached St .Petersburg, where
he was kindly received by Prince Galitzin, Minister of
Public Worship — a handsome little man with large penetrat-
ing eyes — who read his letters of introduction, listened
with interest to the projects of the Bible Society, but
considered the condition of the country too critical to admit
of a journey to Moscow. Mr Paterson felt, however, that
he must justify the expense incurred by the Society through
his visit to Russia by obtaining all the information he
could, and ascertaining for himself the prospects of future
success. Amid the excitement and confusion of a nation
rushing to arms, he set out for the ancient capital on the
24th of August.

On that day Napoleon advanced from Smolensk ; and
Mr Paterson, as he travelled on, heard how that Holy City,

1 Freytag, Pictures of German Life, 2nd ser. vol. ii. p. 215,

i92 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (i.)

with its colossal walls and six-and-thirty towers, had been
set in a blaze and abandoned by the Russians. Late on
the evening of the 2nd September he arrived at Moscow,
one of the last Englishmen to behold the old Tartar wall
and high brick towers, the sacred red gates of the Kremlin,
the green spires of the churches, the barbaric splendour of
cross and crescent glittering over the domes and cupolas
of silver and gold. Seven years earlier Reginald Heber
had looked upon them with the eye of a young poet, "could
have fancied himself the hero of an Eastern tale, and
expected with some impatience to see the Talking Bird,
the Singing Water, or the Black Slave with his golden
club."1

Paterson was engrossed in other thoughts. Moscow
was already half deserted ; in the disturbed state of the
populace it was perilous to traverse the streets ; Governor-
General Rostopchin, busy with Platoff the Hetman of
the Cossacks, spoke a few kindly words, but had no time
to think of Bible Societies ; Princess Galitzin and her
sister, Princess Metschersky, gave the travellers tea, but
saw no hope of forming Auxiliaries at that moment.

On the 5th the closing of the gates made their departure
from Moscow imperative. At the point where the Smolensk
road crosses the road to St Petersburg, some fifty miles
away, they found the highway packed with traffic — waggons,
carts, equipages, crowds of passengers on foot, sheep,
cattle, all fleeing before the French ; and amid the press
the Bishop of Smolensk in his coach, conveying to a place
of safety the venerated eikons of the Virgin Mother,
painted, according to tradition, by St Luke and brought
to Russia by Anne, daughter of the Emperor Constantine
of Byzantium. Further on they met recruits hurrying
forward to the army, and before they reached Twer the
bloody battle of Borodino had been fought. On the i3th

1 The Life of Reginald Heber, vol. i. p. 150,

,8i7] NAPOLEON'S RETREAT FROM MOSCOW 193

they arrived at St Petersburg. Here in a few days all was
in a wild state of excitement and alarm ; the smoke of the
burning of Mother Moscow seemed to darken the world
with fear ; there were rumours of the French advancing
from the lost city, of another army pressing on from Riga ;
the public archives were sent into the recesses of Finland ;
private treasures were despatched to places of safety.

Nothing could be done to forward the cause of the
Bible in such a crisis. Mr Paterson provided himself
with a passport, and was on the point of returning to
Sweden, when his wife, whose health had been gravely
injured by the journey to Moscow, was stricken down with
fever, and for weeks lay helpless. In the interval he
occupied himself with preparing the type for the Finnish
Bible, and in drawing up an address, stating the objects
and efforts of the Bible Society, pointing out the advantages
such a society might produce in Russia, and calling on
all who loved the Bible to co-operate in realizing so noble
a design.

Truly the Lord "will bring the blind by a way they
know not " ! To Napoleon among the ruins of Moscow
the crows and ravens were an omen — and who was more
accessible than he to presentiments of every kind? — which
irritated and depressed him. " Do they mean to follow us
everywhere?"1 They crowded and clamoured about the
gigantic cross on the bell-tower of Ivan the Great, which
he had ordered to be dismounted and added to his trophies.
On the igth October he began his tragic retreat, and ten
days later the huge cross, with ancient armour, cannon and
other encumbering spoils, was flung into the icy waters of
the lake of Semelin.

The crows were the portent ; the Cossacks the catastrophe.
They swarmed in such numbers as to resemble one of the
ancient Scythian migrations. "Wild and fantastic figures,

1 Yerestchagin, Napoleon I. in Ktissia.
VOL. I, N

194 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (i.)

on unbroken horses whose manes swept the ground, seemed
to announce that the inmost recesses of the desert had sent
forth their inhabitants."1 Before two hundred miles of the
terrible march had been completed, an overwhelming snow-
storm preluded the intolerable cold which smote the invaders
— a cold thirty degrees below zero, a cold so intense that
"a sort of smoke came from ears and eyes."2 Men and
women dropped and died in the snow-drifts beside the loot-
laden waggons and carriages they were dragging. Groups
of soldiers lay dead around the camp fires, their feet
charred, their hair frozen to the earth.

"Au seuil de bivouacs desoles
On voyait des clairons a leur poste geles
Restes debout, en selle et muets, blancs de givre."

And everywhere the Cossacks whirled in clouds, with
their long lances, their sledged field-guns, their hoarse
"Hourra!"

It was on the 6th December that the great frost set in.
On that day Mr Paterson submitted to Prince Galitzin his
memorial, and the plan which he had drawn up for a Bible
Society in St Petersburg, and received an assurance that
they should be laid before the Czar at the earliest opportunity.
His Imperial Majesty was on the point of joining the army,
but he postponed his departure in order to examine the
scheme which he was asked to approve. Of loose private
morals and philosophic views in early life, the Czar had
been an avowed enemy of the Bible.3 He was now to pass
through deep religious experiences. In the affliction of war
and the distress of his people, "his thoughts began to turn
towards those deep problems of existence which until then
had caused him little uneasiness. Prince Galitzin, who

1 Scott, Life of Napoleon, vol. iv. p. 164.

2 Marbot, Memoires, vol. iii. p. 218.

3 Paterson, The Book for Every Land, p. 179, Ford, Matfame de Knidener,
p. 142.

i3i7] THE CZAR AND THE BIBLE SOCIETY 195

had himself recently passed through the religious crisis of
his life, advised him to have recourse to the Scriptures."1
Henceforth the Bible became his daily companion ; it taught
him to pray, and as he himself told Archbishop Tengstrom,
never, even in his darkest moments, did he rise from his
knees without the assurance that the Lord would bring about
the deliverance of his nation. The plan and memorial were
examined by the Czar on the i8th ; with a stroke of the pen
he gave his sanction — " So be it. Alexander"; and as
he wrote, the last tattered remnants of the Grand Army
struggled across the ice of the Niemen. Of the mighty host
125,000 had fallen in battle ; 132,000 had perished of fatigue,
hunger, and cold ; 193,000 remained as prisoners.

On the i4th of January 1813 the imperial ukase
authorising the establishment of the St Petersburg Bible
Society was made public, and was received with great
satisfaction among all classes, Jews and Christians, Russians
and Armenians, Protestants and Catholics. To all it was
evident that the plan could not be confined to foreign con-
fessions, but that it must include the members of the Greek
Church, who had been omitted through fear of wounding
the susceptibilities of the Holy Synod, in whose hands the
printing of the Russian Scriptures rested. Nine days later
the society was inaugurated in the palace of Prince Galitzin,
in the presence of Archbishop Ambrose, Metropolitan of
Novgorod and St Petersburg ; Seraphim, Archbishop of
Minsk ; the Metropolitan of the Roman Catholic Church,
the confessor of the^ Czar, several Ministers of State, nobles,
clergy of different communions, and gentlemen of distinction.
Prince Galitzin was elected president. As soon as the
London Committee received the glad news they forwarded
their promised donation of ^500 ; by the end of March the
contributions at St Petersburg amounted to 60,000 roubles,
including a gift of 25,000 from the Czar, who desired to

1 Ford, Life and Letters of Madame de Krudeiier, p. 146,

196 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (i.) [l8o4-

be considered a member, at an annual subscription of 10,000
roubles ; and measures were being concerted for the forma-
tion of Branches in the chief cities of the Empire. But
alas ! unutterable sorrow fell on the life of the man who
had laboured so earnestly and successfully in the cause.
Mrs Paterson, who had never recovered from the effects of
her journey to Moscow, gave birth to her second child on
the yth of March, and survived only a few hours. The
infant died on the following day, and mother and babe
were laid in one grave "till the morning of the resur-
rection."

Mr Pinkerton, who had assisted in the establishment of
the St Petersburg Society, now directed his attention to the
formation of an Auxiliary at Moscow. His plan was
approved by the committee at the Capital, and on the i6th
July 1813 the Moscow Bible Committee was instituted in
the presence of the Archbishop, several archimandrites, and
an assemblage of the nobility and gentry.

As soon as Mr Paterson could leave St Petersburg he
set out for the Eastern Provinces, where operations had
so long been interrupted and embarrassed by recurrent
hostilities, and where the dearth of the Scriptures was dis-
covered to be even greater than had been reported. With
the co-operation of persons of the highest position, and to
the satisfaction of all classes, he succeeded in establishing
Auxiliaries at Dorpat and Riga in Livonia, at Mitau in
Courland, and at Revel in Esthonia — the last on the same
date as the Moscow Bible Committee.

In the first bitter days of the year 1813 a silent rabble
began to appear in long straggling lines among the
snowy fields of Prussia — lame, hollow-eyed, frost-bitten
creatures, clad in old sacks, in shawls, in bits of carpet,
in women's coloured dresses, in sheep-skins, in skins of
dogs and cats ; their heads hidden in night-caps, in
handkerchiefs, in strips of fur — here and there a helmet

,8i7] THE UPRISING IN PRUSSIA 197

or shako ; their feet muffled in straw, rags, skin socks,
felt shoes.

" Ce n'etaient plus de coeurs vivants, des gens de guerre,
C'etait un reve errant dans la brume, un mystere,
Une procession d'ombres sur le ciel noir." 1

Cold and hunger seemed to have taken a demoniacal
possession of them. In their craving for warmth they
burned themselves against hot stoves ; in their greed for food
they devoured dry bread, and some would not leave off till
they died. Till after the battle of Leipzig the people were
under the belief that they who had thrown beautiful wheat-
sheaves into the camp fires, and trampled good bread on the
dirty floor, had been smitten by Heaven with eternal hunger.
As they passed the boys scared them into a movement of
terror with the cry of " The Cossacks ! The Cossacks ! "

On the i yth February those wild riders of the Steppes
reached Berlin — wonderful, picturesque, hideous, good-
natured savages, who set the children on their horses and
rode with them round the market-place, till " every boy
became either a Cossack, or a Cossack's horse." 2 On the
i4th March the Czar and the King of Prussia met at
Breslau. The King wept. " Courage, brother," said
Alexander; " these are the last tears which Napoleon shall
cause you to shed." The next day Prussia declared war
against France. An irresistible wave of patriotism swept
through the country, which had so long been trampled
down. The Academies and Universities were emptied of
their students ; bands of volunteers sprang up in every
village and upland district, and marched in to the chief cities
singing the martial lyrics of Arndt and Korner. Ladies
gave their diamonds and gold trinkets in exchange for
bracelets and chains beautifully wrought in iron ; women
sent their wedding-rings, and received iron ones with the

1 Hugo, Chfitiments, IJ Expiation.

- Freytag : Pictures, 2nd ser. vol. ii. p. 214, et seq.

198 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (i.) [,So4-

picture of the beloved Queen who had died broken-hearted ;
a poor maiden parted with her hair, which was made up
into rings, and sold for a hundred thalers ; children emptied
their money boxes. In this profound national uprising no
one, as we have said, can tell for how much the untiring
work of the Bible Society counted. There was an intense
conviction, not merely among the poor and uneducated, that
in the evil and misery of human affairs a divine hand was
vindicating the claims of Justice and Righteousness.

And who shall doubt that this was indeed the case ?
Who that reads the history of this terrible period, when so
many of the abuses and corruptions, so much of the wicked-
ness and tyranny of the old order, vanished in the flames of
war, can fail to perceive the presence of an overruling
Providence, which checked or diverted, restrained or arrested
the actions of its unconscious human instruments?

Even Bonaparte had had his mission and his appointed
work ; he had accomplished his task, and the power was
wrenched from his hands. In October 1813 his broken
legions fell back from Leipzig ; in December the Allies
crossed the Rhine ; two months later the Cossacks, and not
they alone, but Kalmuks, Bashkirs, and other "babe-eating
ogres," were reported in the neighbourhood of Fontaine-
bleau. On the 3Oth of March 1814 Paris surrendered,
and twelve days later Napoleon signed an unconditional
abdication. That night he attempted to commit suicide,
but the prussic acid which he always carried about with
him had lost its strength. "God did not will it," he said,
when he had recovered.1

A pulk of Cossacks escorted him to Frejus ; an English
frigate conveyed him to Elba. England had destroyed
his dreams and projects in Syria. To shut the ports of
Europe against English commerce he had flung himself
into the continental wars which led to his ruin ; it was

1 Daring-Gould, Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, p. 509.

1817] INTERVIEW WITH THE CZAR 199

from the English squares that the last of his squadrons
were to fall back like broken waves ; an English isle was
to be his prison, six feet of English earth his grave. We
have already seen that it was the Evangelical Revival
which prepared England to cope with the fury of the
Revolution and the mad ambition of Napoleon ; that the
Bible was the inspiration from which that revival sprang ;
that the Bible Society was one of the means which God
blessed to the diffusion of that inspiration. If in telling the
story of these early years of the Society many side-lights
have been thrown on its operations, the object has been
to realise as completely as one may the condition of the
period in which the work was begun, the difficulties under
which it was prosecuted, and the need there was for its
accomplishment.

After the peace of Paris the Czar and the King of
Prussia visited London, and both of them graciously
consented to receive a deputation from the Bible Society.
The meeting with the Czar took place on Sunday evening,
iQth June, and the deputation consisted of Lord Teignmouth
the President, the Bishops of Salisbury, Norwich, and
Cloyne, Admiral Lord Gambier, the Right Honourable
N. Vansittart, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and William
Wilberforce, M.P., Vice-Presidents, and the three Secre-
taries. An address, expressing the gratitude of the Society
for the patronage which his Imperial Majesty had bestowed
on the Bible cause in Russia was presented, and the Czar
— a strikingly handsome, tall, well-built man, of imposing
carriage and singular charm of manner — entered into a
long and familiar conversation regarding the work of the
Bible Society, and the blessing it might prove to his
dominions. He then shook hands with each of the
deputation. Carried away by his feelings, Mr Steinkopff
exclaimed, as he grasped the Czar's hand, "May the Most

200 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (i.) [1804-

High God bless your Imperial Majesty for what you
have done for my native land, and may your name go
down to posterity as the father of your country and
the benefactor of mankind ! " Alexander replied with a
gracious kindness, and the interview was brought to a
close.

The King of Prussia received the same deputation on
the 2ist, and in the course of the audience examined
with interest, in a copy of the Society's reports, a letter
bearing his own signature, which authorised the forma-
tion of the Berlin Bible Society. His Majesty, who was
pleased to learn that he was the first monarch who had
patronised the object of the Society, gave his assurance
that he would protect and favour the cause to the utmost
of his power.

The Continent was now thrown open to friendly inter-
course ; in this blessed time of peace the hearts of the
people who had suffered so long were as broken soil ready
to receive the seed of the Word, and those whose zeal and
activity had already accomplished so much in the Bible
cause found a free field for their exertions.

On the 22nd May 1814 the exertions of Mr Henderson,
warmly seconded by those of Dr Miinter, Bishop of Zealand,
and several persons of high station and character, were
crowned by the provisional formation at Copenhagen of the
Danish Bible Society, which was formally established in
August by the sanction of the King, who promised it his
highest protection. After many delays the edition (5000
copies) of the Icelandic Bible, with 5000 extra Testaments,
had been completed ; large consignments had been de-
spatched by the spring ships to different parts of Iceland ;
and on the gth June Mr Henderson, taking with him
1183 Bibles and 1668 Testaments, sailed for the island with
the intention of visiting not only the principal towns and
villages, but the scattered ^and solitary farms, inquiring

1817] GROWTH OF SWEDISH SOCIETIES 201

as to the lack or otherwise of the Scriptures, and concerting
measures for their effective distribution.

In May Dr Brunnmark, who as chaplain to the Swedish
Legation and rector of the Swedish Church in London
had associated himself with the work of the Committee,
set out on a second tour in Sweden. In the preceding
year he had travelled 1200 miles, supplying necessitous
districts, and prompting the formation of Auxiliaries ; and
partly as the result of his visit, societies had been organised
at Gothenburg, Westeras, and Wisby in the island of
Gothland. The Stockholm Evangelical Society had done
excellent service. In the course of five years it had
printed no fewer than 33,000 Testaments and 11,000 Bibles,
and was now preparing new editions ; but the time had
come when it was imperative that the Bible Department
should be separated from the Tract Department, and the
former constituted as a National Bible Society, with
Gothenburg, Westeras, and Wisby as Auxiliaries. Measures
had been put in train for this object by Mr Paterson,
and Dr Brunnmark had the satisfaction of seeing them
carried out. On the 6th July, in full council of state,
the King graciously consented to become patron of the
Swedish Bible Society ; the Crown Prince (Bernadotte)
accepted the position of first honorary member ; and
Count Engerstrom, Minister for Foreign Affairs, was after-
wards chosen a vice-president. In consequence of the
King's sudden departure from the capital the sign-manual
was not affixed to the constitution till 22nd February 1815.

On the day the Swedish Society was thus established
Dr Brunnmark was appointed to the living of Munkthorp
in Westmania, one of the largest in Sweden. But his
labours were to receive another reward than the quiet
evening of life in his native land, to which he had looked
forward. While travelling by night from Stockholm to
Upsala on Biblical affairs he caught a severe cold and

202 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (i.) [1804-

fever. He completed his work at Upsala, and hurried
to Ytermora in Dalecarlia, where on the ist of August,
at his brother's rectory, surrounded by his venerable
mother, his beloved wife, and three little daughters, he
passed tranquilly to the joy of the new day.1

In the summer of 1814 Mr Paterson and Mr Pinkerton,
who had passed some months in England, returned to
Russia. The former travelled by way of Hamburg, through
Holstein, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. He assisted in
the establishment of the Liibeck Society, towards which a
grant of j£ioo was made. His work in promoting the
formation of the Hamburg-Altona Society was completed
by Dr Schwabe, minister of the Lutheran Church in
Goodman's Fields, London, to whom the Committee were
indebted for many other services. This society received a
grant of ^300, and £100 was voted to Bremen, where an
Auxiliary was also formed. Crossing to Stockholm, he saw
his little son, now in his fourth year — "his infant tears on
my taking leave of him melted me also to tears," — and

O

travelling by Abo and Helsingfors arrived early in October
at St Petersburg, where he found Mr Pinkerton and his
family deeply afflicted — "his youngest son just dead, and
his eldest, a truly promising boy, apparently dying."

Mr Pinkerton Tiad reached Russia through Holland,
Germany, and Poland, and in the course of his tour had
taken part in the formation of the Netherlands Bible
Society at Amsterdam, the Berg Society at Elberfeld, the
Hanoverian, Prussian, and Saxon Societies, and had prepared
for the establishment of organizations at Breslau for Silesia,
and at Warsaw for Poland.

The Netherlands Bible Society, which was the immediate
result of the English Society formed at Amsterdam three

1 " Our friend's last request to us," writes Mr Paterson, " had we been present at
his dying bed, would have been, ' Remember these! ' " — and widow and children, it is
well to record, were faithfully remembered. The members of the Bible Society and
the British public subscribed ^2500 on their behalf.

i8i7] THE PRUSSIAN B.S. FOUNDED 203

months earlier, was established on the 2Qth June, with the
Minister of the Interior as president, and the Governor-
General of Holland as one of the vice-presidents. At least
one half of the population of Holland, it was stated, were
in want of the Bible. The great majority of the Reformed
possessed it, not so many of the Lutherans, and very few of
the Roman Catholics. The example of Amsterdam was soon
followed by Rotterdam, the Hague, and other towns of
the Seven United Provinces.

At Leyden Mr Pinkerton examined the Turkish version
of the Bible which had been completed by Ali Bey at
Constantinople in 1666, and which for a century and a half
had lain neglected among the Oriental MSS. in the archives
of the University. Assuring himself of its value as a text
for publication, he obtained the loan of the MS., and
subsequently arranged at Berlin for its transcription and
revision by Baron von Diez. But the story of this trans-
lation belongs to a later period.

At Elberfeld, where a great part of the large population
were Roman Catholics, many of whom had never seen a
Bible, the Governor-General of the Grand Duchy of Berg
accepted the office of president.

The Lutheran, Reformed, and Catholic clergy co-
operated in the establishment of the Society of Hanover ;
H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge gave it his patronage;
the Baron von Arnswald, President of the Ecclesiastical
Court, became its head.

At Berlin Mr Pinkerton witnessed the establishment
of the Prussian Bible Society, into which the original Berlin
Society was merged. Its constitution had been approved
by the King, who had confirmed its regulations, and granted
it the freedom of the letter-post ; and its directorate included
some of the highest dignitaries of the realm. It was not
long before it was strengthened by the accession of Potsdam
and Erfurt — at which last city the Thuringian Society was

204 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (i.)

founded through the personal exertions of Dr Schwabe,—
and the old Bible Committees of Dantzic and Konigsberg,
which now became Auxiliaries.

At Dresden Pinkerton attended the inauguration of
the Saxon Bible Society under the presidency of Count
Hohenthal, Minister for Religion ; and, a little later,
Branches were formed by the Moravian Brethren at Herrnhut,
Niesky, and Kleinwelke.

In passing through Warsaw he held a preliminary
meeting in the palace of Prince Czartoriski, for the purpose
of arranging for a Polish Bible Society ; but that object was
not accomplished till two years later, and then by the
benevolent interposition of the Czar himself. Further proof
was afforded of the dearth of the Scriptures in Poland ; the
Bible was scarcely to be obtained at any price, and it was
only through the favour of the Prince that Mr Pinkerton
secured an old copy of Wuyk's version, which was originally
published in 1599 and approved by Pope Clement VIII.,
and was reprinted in 1740 and 1771, though the three editions
did not number more than 3000 copies. Here it may be
added that the Polish Bible, printed by the Berlin Society
in 1810, was the Dantzic text, issued by the Reformed
Church in 1632. In the interval the Dantzic Bible passed
through six editions, but these comprised probably not more
than 7000 copies, and at least 3000 were bought up and
destroyed by the Jesuits.1

Liberal grants were made by the London Committee to
all these new organizations; an additional j£ioo was
bestowed on the Saxon Society in aid of the New Testament
in Wendish ; and ^200 each was voted to a New Bible
Society formed at Lausanne for the Canton de Vaud
in December 1814, and to another at Geneva. Of the need
which existed in the Canton de Vaud, a village pastor

1 The Bible of Every Land (Bagster), p. 299. For further details see Mr
Pinkerton's letters in the Thirteenth Report, p. 85.

I8i7] PROGRESS IN CENTRAL EUROPE 205

wrote with regretful recollection of old-world customs :
"Since the excellent law which compelled each couple to
present themselves at the altar with the Bible has fallen
into disuse, many families in the Jura no longer possess
the Scriptures ; and they do not read them even on the
Lord's Day, or during violent storms, as they were wont to
do. In many old families it was the practice to sanctify
the dinner-hour on Sunday by reading the Word of God.
The youngest dined before the others and read aloud during
the repast ; but that custom has fallen into neglect through
lack of books."

Dr Schwabe also made a tour on behalf of the Society,
traversing districts hitherto unvisited by any agent, dis-
tributing small sums among the clergy and others for
the purchase of the Scriptures, and endeavouring to awaken
a spirit similar to that which had appeared in the formation
of the numberless Associations in England. Nearly every-
where he found melancholy traces of the late wars, distress,
and dearth of religious books of all kinds. From Arnheim
in Holland he went to Coblentz, Frankfort-on-the-Main,
Eisenach (where, hard by, towers the Castle of the Wartburg
— the home of St Elizabeth of the Roses, the scene of the
famous contest of the Minnesangers, the asylum of Luther) ;
Erfurt, where, as has been mentioned, he insured the
establishment of a society ; Salfeld, where, a few weeks after
his visit, children came to the pastor for Bibles, bringing
with them "their whole little treasure which they had col-
lected by picking ore." Among the mountains of the
Erzgebirge he found at Freyberg that the silver-miners still
observed the old practice of gathering in prayer to ask the
divine protection before descending in the morning to their
work, and at the close of the day to return thanks for their
preservation. Halle, Dresden, Magdeburg, and Wernigerode
in the mountainous Hartz district, were included in his tour ;
and at Hamburg he assisted in the inauguration of the

206 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (i.) [1804-

Hamburg-Altona Society which Mr Paterson had initiated.
The way was not yet open for the formation of
a Bible Society in France ; but the circulation of the
Scriptures in that country was promoted by donations to
the Consistories in Paris of ^500 for a stereotype edition of
Ostervald's New Testament, and .£250 for a similar edition
of De Sacy's version for the use of the Roman Catholics.

In the account of the events of this period there is little
in the pages of the historians to indicate the strange
ferment of religious emotions which existed beneath the
surface of European society. To what extent this prevailed
it is not easy to say. The record of the Bible Societies
throws light on its less questionable phases ; but probably
it would be impossible to adduce more significant evidence
than is contained in the following incidents of the deep
spiritual agitation in which many persons lived, and of the
extremes of foreboding and exaltation of soul between which
they violently oscillated.

The Congress of Vienna began its sessions in October
1814, and the peace of the western world seemed at last
assured in the hands of the monarchs, sovereign princes, and
plenipotentiaries who were now readjusting the map of
Europe. There were those, however, to whom this season of
calm appeared but a lull in the dilating storm. Madame
de Krudener, whose mystical spirit had for some weeks
reposed under the benediction of Oberlin's presence among
the mountains of the Ban de la Roche, heard the ominous
wings of the unseen Angel "who noted the preserving
blood on the doors of the elect." With a prevision after-
wards singularly verified, she wrote on the 27th October of
the terrible disasters that would overtake France. "The
storm is approaching ; those Lilies preserved by the Al-
mighty— that emblem of a pure and fragile flower shatter-
ing a sceptre of iron, because such was the will of the
Eternal — those Lilies which should have been as a

i8i7] THE ESCAPE OF NAPOLEON 207

summons to purity, to the love of God, to repentance,
have appeared only to disappear."

The Czar was in Vienna, distracted between the serious
work of the Congress and the brilliant fetes of the light-
hearted city, where, as the witty old Prince de Ligne
remarked, " Le Congres dansait, et ne marchait pas " / and the
Czarina Elizabeth, in her anxiety to draw his mind under
religious influences, brought to his notice the impassioned
letters, burning with prophecy and mysticism, which
Madame de Krudener was writing to Mdlle. Stourdza, her
favourite lady-in-waiting.1 "The stern denunciations of
the reckless frivolity which reigned at the Austrian capital,
the mysterious prophecies with regard to the Lilies of
France, and the undisguised reference to himself as the
regenerator of the world, were all calculated to strike home
to the Emperor's conscience in its most tender parts."2
And the effect must have been immeasurably intensified by
the news of Napoleon's escape, which reached Vienna early
in March 1815, and was received by the Congress with that
burst of nervous laughter which is perhaps one of the
grimmest physiological manifestations recorded in political
history. Towards the end of May the Czar left Vienna
to join his headquarters at Heidelberg, and Madame de
Krudener, who by some inspiration had been waiting in
a village of Hesse for the momentous interview which she
felt was about to take place, intercepted him at Heilbronn.
Night had closed in, the Czar was weary with his journey,
and his mind was darkened by heavy clouds. "My ideas
were confused, and my heart oppressed," he afterwards
wrote. "I allowed my book to fall from my hands, while
I thought what a consolation the conversation of a pious
friend would have been to me at such a moment." The
thought had scarcely occurred to him when one of his

1 In 1816 Mdlle. Stourdza became the Countess Edling of many of Madame
Swetchine's most beautiful letters.

2 Ford, Life and Letters of Madame de Krudener, chapters ix. and x.

208 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (i.) tip-
staff announced a lady, who insisted on seeing him. It
was Madame de Krudener. Far into the night the
colloquy lasted. "You have made me discover in myself
things which I had never seen," said Alexander in his
humility ; " I thank God for it, but I feel the need of
many such conversations ; I beg you will not go far away."
At Heidelberg she took lodgings in a peasant's cottage, a
short distance from the imperial headquarters, and there
in a room separated by a partition from a cattle shed, the
Autocrat of all the Russias spent many an hour of the
night in prayer and study of the Scriptures with his
spiritual directress and the young Genevan minister
Empaytaz.

On Sunday, the i8th June, in the ancient city of Bruns-
wick, a Bible Society was founded, while far away in the
south-west the French guns were thundering against
Hougomont and La Haye Sainte. No word had yet
arrived of the mighty struggle which had begun ; the
little gathering did not know that the gallant Duke who
had promised to be their patron had fallen two days
before at the head of his Black Brunswickers at Quatre-
Bras.

Neither had any^ courier arrived at Heidelberg. On the
1 9th, however, the Czar read the thirty-fifth Psalm : " Plead
my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me :
fight against them that fight against me " ; and as he read,
the last trace of anxiety as to the issue of the strife
vanished from his soul. Two days later, when he received
the tidings that Bliicher had been worsted at Ligny, and
Wellington had fallen back on Waterloo, his tranquillity
was undisturbed. The Austrian and Russian armies were
in consternation, but strengthening himself with prayer
and the words of the thirty-seventh Psalm: "Fret not
thyself because of evil-doers . . . they shall soon be cut
down like the grass, and wither as the green herb," he

I8i7] PEACE AT LAST 209

rallied the desponding generals, urged them to a prompt
advance, and gave them assurance of victory.

That crowning blessing had indeed been granted. Giant
Make-strife was captured and chained to his rock in the
distant seas ; and in September, Russia, Austria, and
Prussia concluded the Holy Alliance, in which they
declared their resolution to take for their sole guide, both
in their domestic administration and their foreign relations,
the precepts of the holy religion of Christ the Saviour.
The formula was the most exalted they could have chosen,
but unhappily, as we shall see, it was interpreted in the
light of the old feudal traditions ; the constitutions promised
at the Congress were forgotten as soon as all danger was
passed ; and more than one ruler shared the feeling of
Duke William of Hesse-Cassel, "I have slept seven years;
now we shall forget the bad dream."

VOL. i. O

CHAPTER XII

THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (ll.)

WHILE these portentous events were developing, Mr
Steinkopff, undeterred by the impending troubles, had been
making his second tour on the Continent. He set out
towards the close of May 1815, travelled between 4000 and
5000 miles, and, as occasion required, drew from the
liberal grant of ^4000 which the Committee had placed
at his disposal for the encouragement of Bible Societies
and the distribution of the Holy Scriptures.

In Holland he found that the Netherlands Society, which
enjoyed the patronage of the Prince of Orange, comprised
upwards of forty Auxiliaries and Associations, twenty-four
of which had been formed in Amsterdam alone. The
need for the Prussian Society was demonstrated by the
fact that among 18,000 German, 7800 Polish, and 7000
Lithuanian families in Lithuania not a single Bible was
to be found. On his way through Germany he assisted
at the formation of six societies — one for the town and
circle of Cleve ; the Osnabruck Society ; the Konigsfeld
Society, in the depths of the Black Forest ; the Nassau-
Homburg, under the sanction of the Landgrave of Hesse-
Homburg and the Prince Sovereign of Nassau ; the Frank-
fort Society ; and a society for the principalities of Neuwied
and Wied Runkel. To these and to a branch society at
Wesel, formed the day before his arrival, grants amount-
ing to £6$o were allotted. He visited the institutions at

Schaffhausen, St Gall, Zurich, and Basel, to which
210

1804-1817] MR STEINKOPFF'S SECOND TOUR 211

was presented in different proportions ; and secured the
establishment of a society at Bern, to whose funds he con-
tributed £200. A grant of ^300 was made to the Protestant
Consistory at Vienna for Polish and German Scriptures
to be distributed among the Protestants in Austria ; and
^300 to the Hungarian Bible Institution at Pressburg.
Sets of the Society's reports and versions were presented to
a number of universities and public libraries ; and in an
audience which her Majesty was pleased to grant, the
Queen of Wtirtemburg accepted a set, and expressed her
great interest in the glorious work that was being done
among so many nations and peoples of different tongues. In
summing up the result of his observations, Mr Steinkopff
stated that the cause of the Bible Society had undeniably
gained considerable ground in Northern Europe, in Russia,
Holland, Germany, and Switzerland ; of the German
editions of the New Testament, published by the Ratisbon
Bible Society, Leander Van Ess, and Gosner, 120,000
copies had been printed ; other editions of the Bible or of
the New Testament for Roman Catholics had obtained a
large circulation ; and several Roman Catholic dignitaries had
recommended the reading of the Scriptures, and contributed
to the funds of the societies. On the other hand, there were
not wanting, both among Protestants and Catholics, those
who were indifferent and those who were violently opposed to
the cause. Some maintained that the Bible was obsolete ;
others that it was improper and even dangerous that lay-
men should read it indiscriminately ; and yet again others
would consent to its distribution if their own notes and
comments were added. "But no opposition had hitherto
been able to interrupt the triumphant progress of this great
work."

In 1816 several new societies were formed, and the
double labour of printing and circulating the Scriptures
proceeded with unwearied activity.

212 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (n.) [1804-

In September 1815 Mr Henderson returned home
from his journey of 2600 miles in Iceland. What he
beheld in his wanderings among the wild and often
beautiful scenes of snow and lava, grassy valleys and
happy farmsteads, blue lakes with swans singing on them,
rushing rivers and boiling fountains in that land of Tohu
va-bhohu has been described in a work which even the
captious Burton speaks of as "the best book on Iceland
known to the English tongue." He set out fully aware of
the risks he should encounter. Had not Oddr Gottskalksson,
who first translated the New Testament into Icelandic, "lost
his mortal life in one of the rivers " ? But he was conscious
of the divine protection, and whatever dangers or hardships
fell to his lot were forgotten as he read one of the Psalms
at his tent door by the light of the midnight sun.
Everywhere he found occasion for the benevolence and
stirring influence of the Bible Society. " Here was a
parish in which a folio Bible, greatly injured by use, had
all its defective pages accurately supplied by the pen of a
common peasant ; and there another, whose lent copy had
so long been retained by the islanders of Grimsey, that
the right of ownership had become a disputed point.
One copy in an island ; two in a parish ; twelve among
two hundred people ; six among two hundred and fifty ; a
clergyman seeking for seventeen long years to possess a
copy of his own, and hitherto unable to secure the treasure ;
peasants who had offered, but offered in vain, to the amount
of five-and-twenty shillings for a copy " — such are the
details which crowd the pages of his narrative.1 Subscrip-
tion lists were opened in all the parishes, in order that
it might readily be determined how many copies should
be forwarded to each.

At the close of his first tour, inland and round the
coast, he heard of his father's death, and until he learned

1 Henderson, Memoir of the Rev. E. Henderson, D.D., p. 155.

i8i7] MR HENDERSON IN ICELAND 213

that friends in Scotland had made provision for her, the
thought of his widowed mother added anxiety to the burden
of his loss. On such personal details there is not need to
dwell ; but since the workman is so easily lost sight of in
the story of the work, it is well to realise now and again
that not without suffering and anxiety, hardship and
danger, sickness and bereavement and sacrifice, was that
work accomplished.

During his stay in Iceland Mr Henderson left 4055
Bibles and 6634 Testaments for distribution. On the loth
July he had the satisfaction of seeing the Icelandic Bible
Society founded at Reykjavik, although, in consequence of
the absence of several leading inhabitants, it was not till
the following July that its constitution was formally adopted.
As soon as the news reached England a grant of ^300
was voted by the Committee. In 1818 Dean Helgasen,
the secretary, reported that every family throughout the
island was then in possession of a Bible or a New Testa-
ment, and many had more than one copy. During the long
winter evenings the book was read with diligence. The
revision of the New Testament had then been nearly com-
pleted, and the Icelanders hoped that means would be found
to enable them to print it. This is the last we shall hear
of the Isle of the Sagas for some years to come.

Before Mr Henderson sailed from Reykjavik Bishop
Vidalin presented him with a poem, addressed to the Bible
Society, and bearing the episcopal seal, in which the poet,
the Rev. Jon Thorlaksson,1 placed on the lips of the Island
personified the affection and gratitude with which the
Scriptures had been received.

1 Sira Jon Thorlaksson, the admirable poet who produced a translation of Paradise
Lost of extreme beauty and dignity, was parish priest at Backa and Boegisa. He
lived in great poverty, and died in 1819 at the age of seventy-five. His living, besides
glebe and parish gifts, was only £6 a year — ' ' not an unusually low stipend "
(Henderson), but nearly half of it went to his assistant at Boagisa. Nine years after
his death his Paradisar-tnissir was published at Copenhagen through the liberality
of an English gentleman.

2i4 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (n.) [1804-

Society of Christ ! whose fame

The world shall raise o'er thy compeers —
Thou most deserving of such name,

Or in the past or present years —
Thy beam has shone more lovely bright

Than solar blaze or lunar ray,
Has shone, when all around was night,

And bade the darkness pass away.

When they, our unbelieving foes,

Would crush the hope they could not feel,
You, sons of England, then arose,

With hearts all love and hands all zeal ;
You, bound by charity's blest tie,

And fearless in defence of truth,
Spent in our aid unsparingly

Riches and pow'r — and age and youth.

And what, tho' near the Arctic pole,

And like a heap of drifted snow,
The chilling north-winds round me roll,

The land of ice — called rightly so —
Tho' circled by the frigid zone,

An island in a frozen sea ;
Yet I this charity have known,

This Christian zeal has glowed for me.

For see — the messengers of Peace —

From Albion new Apostles come ;
They, like the old, shall never cease

To quit their kindred and their home.
Like them, with canvas wide unfurl'd,

Careless of life, they tempt the gale,
And seek the limits of the world —

Ye friends to God and Iceland, hail !

One visits me — thou Great First Cause

Enthron'd in majesty above ;
'Tis here I recognise Thy laws,

And feel how mindful is Thy love.
And shall I, when Thou deign'st to bless,

Forgetful sleep the years away ;
And sunk in torpid listlessness,

Nor strike the lyre, nor raise the lay ?

i8i7] A SONG OF THULE 215

Th' unfeeling heart, the sordid hand,

Would mourn, perchance, the vast expense,
With which on earth's remotest land,

You spread the gifts of Providence.
The treasures of the world sublime

Go forth, where'er your banners wave ;
In ev'ry language, ev'ry clime,

The mind to form, the soul to save.

What then can merit more of praise,

The mortal and immortal crown ;
What better shall your honours raise,

And call the tide of blessings down,
Than pouring through this world of strife

The healing balm of sacred lore,
And minist'ring that bread of life,

Which tasted once, man wants no more ?

Yet, what your ardent breasts could lead

These gifts to spread, these toils to dare ?
Could hopes of gain impel the deed?

Could thoughts of avarice be there ?
No, — 'twas the love of Him on high,

The safety of the poor on earth ;
Hence rose your Sun of Charity,

Hence has your Star of Glory birth.

Society of Christ ! most dear

To Heaven, to virtue, and to me !
For ever lives thy memory here ;

While Iceland is — thy fame shall be.
The triumphs of the great and brave,

The trophies of the conquer'd field —
These cannot bloom beyond the grave,

To thee their honours all shall yield.

Thy fame, far more than earth can give,

Shall soar with daring wing sublime ;
And wide, and still more wide, survive

The crush of worlds, the wreck of time.
Thus Thule and her sons employ

Their harps to pour the grateful song ;
And long thy gifts may we enjoy,

And pour this grateful tribute long.

216 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (n.)

Aged and clad in snow-white pall,

I twine the wreath, and twine for thee ;
Tho' mingled howls in Thule's hall

The north-wind with our minstrelsy.
These strains, tho' rigid as the clime,

Rude as the rocks — oh, scorn not thou ;
These strains, in Thule's elder time,

Kings have received — receive them now.

Yet, not the harp, and not the lay,

Can give the praise and blessing due ;
May He, whom Heaven and Earth obey,

Ye Christian Fathers, prosper you !
May He — if prayVs can aught avail—

No joys in life or death deny,
Crown you with fame that shall not fail,

With happiness that cannot die !

For many years after his visit the remembrance of Mr
Henderson survived among the Icelanders. " His name,"
wrote Burton in 1874, "cut in Hebrew letters upon the
soft yellow tufa (palagonite) of Hytardal nearly sixty
years ago, is, and long will be, shown to travellers,"1 and
even to-day his book is that by which the people prefer
to be known.

In Denmark the national society had made great
progress, and on its roll of patrons it included the name of
his Highness Prince Christian. On his return from Iceland,
Mr Henderson, in the course of a considerable tour, helped
to form or initiate the formation of societies in Fiinen,
Jutland, and Sleswick-Holstein, the last of which was
patronised and zealously promoted by the Landgrave
Charles. The royal sanction was given on the iyth
November 1815, and the London Committee assisted its
funds with a grant of £300.

In Sweden the adherence of the bishops and the
principal clergy to the cause of the Bible had an immediate
and decisive effect. The prelates issued a circular letter

1 Burton, Ultima Thule, vol. i. p. 257.

1817] SOCIETIES IN SWEDEN AND NORWAY 217

exhorting the clergy throughout the kingdom to unite in
one harmonious effort for the universal diffusion of the
Scriptures. Auxiliaries were speedily formed for the
Universities of Lund and Upsala, and in a little while
Skara, Carstadt, Carlscrona, Wexio, Askersund, and others
were added to the list. The societies at the Universities,
where the fountains of theological learning as well as of
secular instruction were under one and the same control,
were especially welcomed as indicating a return to the
old simplicity of Christian truth which in Sweden, as in
the other nations of Europe, had suffered from the in-
fidelity and licentious philosophy of the age.

A munificent donation of 6600 rix-dollars from the
Crown Prince (Bernadotte), who hoped the " joyful day"
was approaching "when the Word of the Lord should
be found in the smallest cottage of the North," provided
the foundation of the Norwegian Bible Society. Encouraged
by this liberality and a promise of a grant from the London
Committee, the five bishops of Norway, the Court chaplain
in Christiania, and the Professor of Divinity in the Royal
Norwegian University, circulated an address in every part
of the kingdom. Both the clergy and the people responded
with zeal, and on the 28th December 1816 the society
was established.

Baron Rosenblad, the president of the Swedish Bible
Society, described the change which had taken place
among the population in consequence of these labours : —
"Many who formerly neither acknowledged the value of
this blessed volume, nor experienced its sanctifying
influence, have been enlightened by the Spirit of God,
and look upon the Holy Scriptures with a more pious
regard. The spirit of levity and mockery that prevailed
as to the doctrines of revelation has considerably given
way to a more serious and devout attention to their
important contents."

218 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (n.) [1804

At this point the reader may be referred to the Appendix,1
where he will find a list of the principal Bible Societies
established on the Continent up to the close of the year
1816-17, together with an account of the financial support
given them by the parent institution, and (so far as
reported) the number of Bibles and Testaments which
they published. The following is a brief summary of the
position.

In Central Europe, including Hungary and Switzerland,
the Bible Societies and their Auxiliaries numbered 96.
The editions of the Scriptures issued by them formed an
aggregate of 119,000 Bibles and 54,000 Testaments. The
grants in aid voted by the Committee amounted to ^21,025.

Of these grants ^496 was specially assigned for the
benefit of the poor, but in addition to that sum, and apart
from a large number of Testaments distributed in Dutch
islands and colonies, the Society expended for Scriptures,
to be distributed through various agencies among exiles,
refugees, orphans, and the poor generally in different towns
and provinces, ^"1317.

Similarly, ^600 in the grants was intended for the
advantage of Roman Catholics in Germany and Switzerland.
Besides this sum, however, the Committee, who included
in their charity all denominations of Christians, devoted
to the distribution of the free and uncommented Scriptures
among the Roman Catholics of these regions no less
than ^3108.

Various amounts in the grants were also intended for
the relief of the Protestant congregations in France, but
in addition to these amounts the Committee bestowed on
France ^2073, of which, as we have seen, ^"500 was sent
to the United Consistories in Paris for an edition of the
Ostervald's French Testament, and ^250 for an edition of
De Sacy's version. Bibles and Testaments to the value

1 See Appendix IV.

i8i7] GRANTS TO CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES 219

of about ;£ioo were also distributed among the troops on
the French frontier after the fall of Napoleon.

The total outlay of the Society in Central Europe
amounted accordingly to ,£27,523.

In Northern Europe (including Denmark, Finland, and
Iceland) there were fifteen Bible Societies and Auxiliaries :
41,500 Bibles, 73,600 Testaments, and 3000 Psalters were
printed. The grants from the Committee amounted to
^"9424. But previous to the formation of the Icelandic Bible
Society ^1750 had been voted in aid of the production of
the Icelandic Scriptures ; Bibles and Testaments to the value
of ;£ioo had been distributed in Denmark before the Danish
Bible Society was founded ; and in addition to ^750 for
the benefit of the poor included in the grants to the
Swedish Evangelical Society, and the donations distributed
by Dr Brunnmark during his tours, the Committee had given
£616 for Scriptures to be bestowed on prisoners of war,
Finnish refugees in Stockholm, and the poor in Sweden and
Lapland.

In Northern Europe, then, the expenditure of the Society
amounted to ;£ 11,890.

During the first twelve months of its existence such had
been the activity of the St Petersburg Bible Society that at
the opening of 1814 it had entered into engagements for
printing the New Testament in Polish, De Sacy's French
Bible, Luther's German Bible, the Finnish Bible (from

o

the type that had been prepared for the Abo Society), the
New Testament in Armenian — the edition in each instance
consisting of 5000 copies — and the Kalmuk version of
St Matthew, which had been obtained from Sarepta.

In the following September Sir Gore Ouseley, the British
Ambassador to Persia, passed through St Petersburg on his
way home. In conversation with Prince Galitzin he related
how a copy of Henry Martyn's Persian translation of the
New Testament had been confided to his care at Tabriz.

220 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (n.) [1804-

With the object of producing a version in the purest idiom
Mr Martyn had arrived at Shiraz, the city of Hafiz and
Saadi, in 1811, and remained there nearly a year. The
work went on busily in the garden beyond the city wall,
where his host Jaffir Ali Khan pitched a tent for him,
"amidst clusters of grapes, by the side of a clear stream,"
when the heat became too intense for his enfeebled body ;
but many a precious hour was taken up in controversy
with "cavilling infidels" and bigoted Mullahs, and more
than once he ran the risk of falling a martyr for his faith.
One curious incident which occurred during his stay cannot
be overlooked. In the sacred month of Moharram he had
seen the famous Persian Miracle Play of Hasan and Hoseyn,
"which has divided the whole Moslem world from the
beginning till now into the two great parties of Sunnis and
Shi'a, ever hostile and filled with bitter hate for each other."1
In the performance an actor was introduced to personate the
English Ambassador who begged the life of the martyr ;
and to show that he was English a string of English words,
unintelligible to the audience, was put into his mouth.
Horrified to find that they consisted of the most blasphemous
oaths, Henry Martyn persuaded the man to learn the Lord's
Prayer instead ; and since that time the Lord's Prayer has
formed part of the Persian Passion Play.

Mr Martyn made no converts during his sojourn in Persia,
but seven or eight years later Sir R. Porter was shown the
orange-tree under which he used to sit, and the Mullahs
were still endeavouring to confute the arguments he had
brought against them.2 Another traveller tells of a man of
great learning and high moral distinction, who had known
the Englishman "who taught the religion of Christ in the
midst of much scorn and ill-treatment from our Mullahs as
well as the rabble." He too had visited the teacher of the

1 Lane-Poole, Studies in a Mosque, p. 210.

2 The Church Quarterly, October 1881.

i8i;] THE DEATH OF HENRY MARTYN 221

despised creed, with intent to expose his doctrines to contempt,
but these evil feelings subsided under the influence of his
gentleness. " Before he quitted Shiraz I paid him a parting
visit," said Mohammed Rameh ; "our conversation — the
memory of it will never fade from my memory — sealed my
conversion. He gave me a book ; it has ever been my
constant companion ; the study of it has formed my most
delightful occupation." The book was a copy of the New
Testament in Persian, and on one of the blank leaves was
written: "There is joy in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth. — Henry Martyn." 1

From Shiraz Martyn made a terrible journey of three
hundred miles to Tabriz, where he arrived stricken with fever
and ague, foodless and penniless ; and the Ouseleys put him
to bed to die. Two months later, however, he rallied, and
on the 2nd September 1812, he started on his return to
England. Sir Gore Ouseley had kindly undertaken to
present his version of the New Testament to the Shah, in
the name of the Bible Society, and the burden of that duty
was off his mind. Through parching heat, drenching rain,
keen frost ; burning with fever, shivering with ague ; he was
hurried on by his callous Tartar guides to Erivan, to Kars,
to Erzeroum, to Chiflik, to Tokat. At Tokat the plague was
raging, and there on the :6th October he died at the age of
thirty-one. " It has been stated that the Armenians of Tokat
buried him with the honours due to an archbishop. But if
this be so, the honours were soon forgotten by most of them.
The only monument of him that Sir R. Porter saw in 1819
was the great pyramidal hill, on which St Chrysostom at
Comana, as Henry Martyn at Tokat, might have looked his
last."2

The translation received the highest praise from his

1 The Bible of Every Land (Bagster), p. 70. This copy of the New Testament
must have been the version which Sabat and Mirza Fitrut made at Dinapore under
the superintendence of Henry Martyn.

2 The Church Quarterly, October 1881, p. 64.

222 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (n.) [I8o4-

Persian Majesty ; and on the suggestion of Mr Pinkerton,
Prince Galitzin was permitted to have a transcript made from
the copy in the possession of Sir Gore Ouseley, who under-
took to correct the press so long as he remained at St
Petersburg. The work was begun without delay, and within
twelve months 5000 copies were ready for distribution.

On the 28th September 1814 the first annual meeting of
the St Petersburg Bible Society was attended by the chief
dignitaries of the Greek, Catholic, Armenian, and Georgian
Churches, and by ladies and nobles of the first rank in the
Empire ; five archbishops, and three metropolitans of
different creeds were added to the roll of vice-presidents,
and the society itself was exalted to national rank, with the
designation of the Russian Bible Society.

At this time also attention was drawn to the need for
an edition of the Georgian Scriptures. From the Arch-
bishop Dositheos it was ascertained that there were over
a million Christians belonging to the Georgian communion.
In Georgia proper there were nearly 900 churches, and
in Imeritia and Mingrelia 1 100 ; yet among these 2000
churches there did not exist 200 Bibles. Indeed, only
one edition of the Georgian Bible had ever been printed, and
that was a folio which was issued from the Moscow press
in 1743, though the original version on which the actual
text was based dated as far back at least as the eighth
century. Even the clergy were for the most part deplorably
ignorant, and the Archbishop, who was eager to promote
the cause of Bible Societies, was about to leave for Tiflis
under a commission from the Czar to improve the con-
dition of the priesthood. His chief hope seemed to rest
on the Georgian women, among whom had been pre-
served, with love and reverence, the tradition of Ninna,
virgin and saint, who had introduced Christianity into
Georgia early in the fourth century.

It seemed that there would be a long time to wait for

,8i7j THE CZAR'S VERSION IN RUSS 223

the Georgian Scriptures if their issue was to depend on
the establishment of an Auxiliary in Tiflis. Inquiry was
accordingly made at Moscow, and it was discovered that,
by one of those strange providences which have already
been signalised, the matrices from which the Bible of
1743 had been cast had escaped destruction in the burning
of the city. Arrangements were made to print 5000 copies
of the New Testament under the supervision of Ion the
Georgian Metropolitan and Archbishop Paphnutius, who
were both resident in the Kremlin. Mr Pinkerton, who
had just lost his "two dear sons in one month," took
comfort in the thought of seeing the Word of God, by
means of the Kalmuk, Tartar, Armenian, Georgian, and
Persian versions, "spread among all the nations between
us and India." And to these tongues were shortly to be
added a Wallachian or Moldavian Bible, and Testaments
in Bulgarian and Samogit.

On the Czar's return to the capital at the close of 1815
the affairs of the Russian Bible Society came more par-
ticularly under his personal knowledge. During his absence,
when the thrones of Europe were vibrating to the tramp
of legions, he had given proof of his remembrance of the
society by granting it the privilege of free postage, not
only for correspondence but for transmission of Bibles and
Testaments throughout his dominions. In his anxiety
that the millions of his subjects should possess the Book
from which he had himself obtained light in darkness,
consolation in sorrow, and strength in adversity, and
"convinced by experience" that for people "in every
condition of life " the reading of the Scriptures promotes
"godliness and morality, on which the true prosperity of
individuals and nations is built,"1 he directed the Holy
Synod, in the following spring, to prepare a new trans-
lation in Modern Russian. The authorised Sclavonic

1 The Czar's Rescript to the Holy Synod.

224 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (n.) [I804-

version, made by the brother missionaries, Methodius and
Cyril, in the ninth century,1 and revised and amended in
later times, was said to be as unintelligible to the general
population of Russia as Wycliffe's would be to the mass
of English readers. His Imperial Majesty's next act of
benevolence was the present of a spacious mansion among
the gardens of the Summer Palace, together with a grant
of 15,000 roubles from his own purse to defray the expense
of converting it into a Bible House ; he conferred a similar
amount to clear the duty charges on a large consignment
of cheaper paper from Holland ; and, ever eager to hasten
onward, called upon the St Petersburg committee to devise
a plan for at least doubling the number of Scriptures which
were being printed. The Russian Society could not be
charged with having been dilatory. At the third anniver-
sary, held on i5th June 1816, it was reported that " 157,100
copies of the Scriptures had been printed, were in hand,
or about to be printed in sixteen different languages, to
say nothing of other translations in preparation ; and the
expenditure in that year alone amounted to 227,700
roubles compared with 297,642 during the preceding
years." The society had become really national, for by
an arrangement with the Holy Synod it was permitted
to print the Russian Scriptures for itself. Its fame had
travelled so far that the Buriats, in the region about Lake
Baikal in Siberia, rinding the Kalmuk Gospel too strange
for easy reading, had contributed to its funds 12,000 roubles
towards the expense of producing a translation in their own
dialect.2

1 For an interesting account of these first missionaries to the Khasars of the
Crimea, the Bulgarians, and the Moravians, see vol. iv. (pp. 51-98) of Bost : Hist.
Gtnerale de tEtablissement du Christianisme, d'apres 1'allemand de C. G.
Blumhardt.

2 The facts regarding the Buriats were communicated by Mr Paterson to the
London Missionary Society, and his correspondence with them on the subject
resulted in Messrs Stallybrass and Rahm — names we shall again meet with — being
sent to lay the foundation of the mission to that remote country. — Paterson, The
Book for Every Land, p. 213.

i8i7] PINKERTON IN SOUTH RUSSIA 225

In July 1816 Mr Paterson left St Petersburg for a tour
in the East Baltic Provinces, visiting Dorpat, Mitau, Riga,
Revel, Narva, Pernau (where the foundation was laid for a
Bible Society for two districts containing 80,000 inhabit-
ants), and the Island of CEsel, where the unlettered boors
still used a primeval almanack composed of seven flat
sticks scored with hieroglyphics and strung together on a
thong.1 The state of the peasantry in Esthonia, he observed,
was perhaps the worst in Europe, but already the ukase of
Alexander giving them freedom was being printed, and
arrangements were being made for putting it into execu-
tion. " But they must be raised in some degree in the
scale of beings before they can enjoy the good preparing
for them ; they must feel that they also have moral worth,
— that they are men." It was to the effect produced by
the Bible Society in putting the Scriptures into every home
that he looked for the needful change.

Earlier in 1816, with the concurrence of the British
and Foreign Bible Society, who provided the necessary
funds, Mr Pinkerton had undertaken a tour of 7000 miles
in the service of the Russian Society. He inspected the
Auxiliaries at Moscow, Voronez, Theodosia (Kaffa), and
Kamentz ; inaugurated new societies at Tula, Simpheropol,
Odessa, Wilna, Mohilev, and Witepsk ; and in many other
places made arrangements for the establishment of insti-
tutions, and awakened a keen interest not only amongst
Roman Catholics, who indeed in some places took the leading
part, but among Cossacks, Mohammedans, and Jews.

A discovery from which very important results were
expected at the time was made in the Crimea. From
Bakhtchisarai, the ancient Tartar capital, he made an

1 However ancient the almanack, it can scarcely have been pre-Christian, unless
the early missionaries converted it to their own uses. All its memorable or lucky
and unlucky days are associated with natural phenomena — the appearance of loriot
and pike, the steaming of water springs, the swarming of bees, or with Church
festivals, such as the Nativity, the Epiphany, Lady-Day, or the feasts of saints. See
Gentlemaris Magazine, 1812, Pt. I. p. 625.

VOL. I. P

226 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (n.) [1804-

excursion to Chufut Kale — the " Forty Castles," said to have
been built by forty brothers — a curious walled stronghold
which the Jews believed to have been founded four centuries
before Christ on the summit of these craggy and all but
inaccessible cliffs. In 1875, though the synagogue was still
used, the town had been deserted by all but two families and
certain Karaim Jews in charge of the old MSS., which were
preserved in a library. In Mr Pinkerton's time there were 250
families, who, whether they were or were not a " Protestant"
secession from the corruptions of the later Sadducees, still
obeyed the ordinance of Nehemiah xiii. 19, and closed the
fortress gates from the eve of the Sabbath till the following
sunset. The traveller learned from the Rabbis that they con-
stantly used, together with the Hebrew, a Tartar translation
of the Old Testament which had been made by their fore-
fathers several centuries earlier. He obtained a beautiful
MS. copy, on fine vellum, in four volumes, bound in red
goat's leather and ornamented with gold. Here he believed
he had secured a text of the Old Testament, composed in
the pure Jaghatai of Bokhara, without Talmudic gloss or
teaching, by the very "Sons of the Text"; and this, he
thought, together with the Karass version of the New
Testament, would furnish a perfect Tartar Bible. The MS.
was afterwards examined by the missionaries at Astrakhan,
and it was found that though the words were Tartar the
idiom was so completely Hebraic that even Tartar Jews could
not read it unless acquainted with their ancient language.
To Tartar and Turk it was quite unintelligible. From a
critical point of view also its value was disappointing, as,
instead of adhering to the letter of the text in the true
Karaite spirit, the translator not unfrequently followed the
Chaldee Targums and renderings in the Rabbinical com-
mentaries.1 The Book of Genesis, with such alterations as
appeared necessary, was issued two or three years later

1 Henderson, Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia, pp. 335-6.

isi7] INTERVIEW WITH METTERNICH 227

by the British and Foreign Bible Society, but nothing
more was published, though an edition of the complete
work was subsequently produced at the expense of the Jews
of South Russia.

The Russian Bible Society had already undertaken an
edition of 5000 copies of the Wallachian New Testament,
but now that Mr Pinkerton had reached Kischenau, the
capital of Moldavia, he learned from Gabriel, the vener-
able Exarch, that there were probably not fifty Bibles to be
found in the 800 churches of his diocese. Arrangements
were accordingly made, on behalf of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, that the Exarch, who was revising
the proofs from St Petersburg, should print 5000 Moldavian
Bibles at the press which he had himself recently established.

At Cracow Mr Pinkerton prepared the way for a new
society, and offered a grant of ^500 from the London
Committee if the institution would undertake to print,
without note or comment, 5000 Polish Bibles and 5000
additional Testaments.

On the 1 2th August 1816 he reached Vienna, and on
the 2oth he laid the object and methods of the Bible Society
before Prince Metternich, with a view to obtaining the
sanction of the Government for Biblical operations in the
Austrian dominions. The Prime Minister received him most
graciously, desired him to draw up a plan and memorial
for the consideration of the Emperor on his return to the
capital, invited him to dinner on the 24th ; and five days
later, on bidding him farewell, observed that though in a
Roman Catholic country a measure of this kind had many
difficulties to encounter which it would not meet with in a
Protestant, still he would do everything in his power to
bring the matter to the desired conclusion.

In high hopes, yet not without misgiving, Mr Pinkerton
proceeded to Breslau, Herrnhut, Halle, and Berlin, gather-
ing information and giving encouragement. Passing through

228 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (n.) [I8o4-

Frankfort and Posen, he arrived at Warsaw on the i2th
October. Prince Czartorisky and the friends of the cause
were overjoyed at his coming. After his visit in 1814 the
Archbishop of Gnesen, on being informed of the steps
which had been taken, began to exert all his influence as
Primate of Poland to prevent the establishment of the
Polish Bible Society. Gnesen was ceded to Prussia by the
Congress of Vienna, and in the spring of 1816 it appeared
as though the promoters would at last be able to establish
the institution, and arrangements were put in progress.
Under date the 2Qth June, however, in response to an
application to Rome for instructions, the Archbishop
received a Papal Rescript expressing horror "at this
pestilence, this most crafty invention by which the very
foundations of religion are undermined," commending- highly
the Archbishop's vigilance, and exhorting him to the most
strenuous exertions "to detect and oppose the impious
machinations of these innovators," and "to warn the people
committed to his charge against falling into the snares set
for their everlasting ruin."1

Mr Pinkerton met the difficulty with a prompt resource-
fulness. On the 1 4th October he laid the whole case before
the Czar, who was irr Warsaw at the moment ; on the i6th
he received his Majesty's reply, not merely sanctioning
the society but putting himself at its head; on the 2ist
the inaugural meeting was attended by the Bishop of
Kuavia, Count Pototsky, Minister for Religion and Educa-
tion, Prince Czartorisky, and other noblemen. In the
course of a few days, after a struggle of two years'
duration, and despite the thunders of the Vatican, the
Polish Bible Society was founded.

Mr Pinkerton pursued his way to Grodno, Wilna,
Mohilev, and Witepsk, and closed his long journey on

1 See Owen, History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, vol. iii. p. 303, for
the original text of the phrases here quoted.

,8i7] ADHESION OF RUSSIAN CATHOLICS 229

the 2nd December. But the Trumpets of the Seven-hilled
City were still sounding.

A monitory Brief, dated 3rd September 1816, was
addressed by the Pope to the venerable Stanislaus, the Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Mohilev and Metropolitan of Russia,
who had recommended to his clergy the free circulation of the
Scriptures among the people, and the support of the Russian
Bible Society. His Grace was reminded that " if the Sacred
Scriptures were allowed in the vulgar tongue everywhere
without discrimination, more detriment than benefit would
arise," and he was admonished "to declare sincerely
and plainly, in a fresh letter to the people, that Christian
truth and doctrine, both dogmatic and moral, are contained
not in the Scriptures alone but likewise in the traditions
of the Catholic Church, and that it is solely for the Church
herself to regard and interpret them." One may conjecture
the effect of this missive of the 3rd September, from the
fact that on the i5th November, when Mr Pinkerton attended
the establishment of the White Russian Society at Mohilev,1
a Roman Catholic Canonicus in the presence of the Roman
Catholic Bishop Madziefsky quoted the memorable letter of
Pope Pius VI., and encouraged his co-religionists to support
the pious and beneficial labours of the Bible Societies.2

But if Rescript and Brief failed in immediate effect,
they exercised a disastrous and lasting influence on the
Bible cause in Austria. Mr Pinkerton's application and

1 Prince Barclay de Tolly, the wily antagonist of Napoleon, opened the subscrip-
tions for this society with a donation of 500 roubles.

2 In Pius VI. 's Brief to Martini, Archbishop of Florence, occurs the passage:
" Illi enim sunt fontes uberrimi, qui cuique patere debent ad hauriendam et morum et
doctrinae sanctitatem " ("For these are most copious fountains, which should lie
open to each individual for the drawing of holiness both in morals and in doctrine").
In the Ninth Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society a learned ecclesiastic,
writing from Scandinari, in the Levant, in a tone of personal reminiscence, says :
" Pius VI. of happy memory was fond of recommending to Cardinal Borgia, at that
time Patron of the Society De Propaganda Fide, to print the Bible as generally
as possible, translating it into various languages ; because, he affirmed, from
these more than from any other means good might be expected to be done in the
parts of the world where Christianity was unknown, or had ceased to be cultivated,
particularly in the Morea, Syria, Africa, Arabia, and the Isles."

230 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (n.) t,8o4-

memorial were rejected, and an edict, dated from Buda,
23rd December 1816, was issued, prohibiting throughout
the Austrian dominions both the establishment of Bible
Societies and the circulation of the Bible, either gratis
or otherwise, by foreign Bible Societies. Whereupon
the archbishops and bishops of Hungary published a
declaration expressing their gratitude to the Government,
and added the information that the Congregation of the
Propaganda had warned vicars-apostolic and missionaries
in the East against a recent Persian version which was
being dispersed "even among the Infidels," and against
" these Bible Societies speciously pretending the propaga-
tion of Christianity." "Thus mutually provident,"
exclaimed the good prelates, who set such slight store
by the counsels of Pius VII. 's predecessor, "the most
sacred Head of the Apostolic See and the most august
Sovereign of the Apostolic Kingdom unite their efforts
to take care that no injury shall arise in our days to religion
and the State." Seizure followed prohibition ; and three
chests containing upwards of 400 Bohemian Bibles, which
were taken by force, were only restored on condition
that the consignee pledged himself to send them out of
the country at his own expense.

This was the first grave check the Bible cause had
hitherto sustained.

Once more we must refer the reader to the Appendix1
for details. The annual report for 1817 enumerates 26
Russian and 3 Polish Bible Societies and Auxiliaries. Up
to that time the printings of the Russian Bible Society
comprised 58,000 Bibles, 90,000 Testaments, and 7000
Portions, in sixteen languages, and the grants of the Com-
mittee had amounted to ,£13,807. In addition to this, how-
ever, ^710 had been voted for the production of the Tartar

1 See Appendix IV.

isi7] SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 231

New Testament at Karass, and the Kalmuk Gospel of St
Matthew at Sarepta ; ,£185 for the benefit of poor Germans
in the Volga colonies; ^1209 for prisoners of war and
poor British subjects in Russia, and ;£i68 for the poor
in Poland.

The entire expenditure in Eastern Europe was ;£ 16,079.

To sum up. In Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe
the grants of the British and Foreign Bible Society up to
the close of 1816-17 amounted to ^55,492. In the course of
his continental tours the Rev. C. Steinkopff distributed
^"6712, which brings the total expenditure to ^62,204. The
Scriptures printed formed an aggregate of 218,500 Bibles,
217,000 Testaments, and 10,000 Portions.

It is not surprising that in these years the record of the
Society's work in Spain and Portugal is vague, slight, and
broken. Doubtless much was hoped for from the presence
of British troops in the Peninsula, perhaps even more from the
return of the Portuguese and Spanish prisoners of war to
their homes. If it was not the expectation, it must have been
the prayer of many that the Scriptures thus dispersed in
the Peninsula would, like the tropic vegetation which has
dislocated, toppled in ruin, and buried in dense foliage the
colossal blocks and hideous sculptures of Copan and
Palenque, prove seeds of life and power sown among the
sinister structures of superstition and priestcraft. God's good
time had not yet come for the accomplishment of great
designs. The ways were not laid open ; and beyond what
has already been indicated, 200 Bibles, and 16,325 Testa-
ments, valued at ^1800, represent the efforts made to spread
the Gospel in these two countries.

Considerable numbers of Spanish and Portuguese Testa-
ments were printed — of the latter alone 20,000 copies — and
large consignments were sent to settlements abroad. In
South America, from time to time, copies found their way

232 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (n.) [1804-

to the Brazils, Chili, Carthagena. In 1806, 600 copies were
sent to Buenos Ayres and Monte Video — the first time
that New Testaments in Spanish ever reached South
America. At Monte Video they were reported to have
obtained a rapid circulation ; even the priests bought them
and commended them as "good and fair copies." No
sooner, however, had the British flag been lowered at Buenos
Ayres in the following year than the Spanish Bishop called
in under the severest penalties all copies of the New Testa-
ment and other religious publications distributed during the
British occupation. In 1813 various changes for the better
took place in La Plata. In March the General Constituent
Assembly of Buenos Ayres abolished the Inquisition,
and in April they passed a law safeguarding foreign miners
and proprietors of mining works, their workmen, clerks, and
domestics from interference on the ground of religion, and
allowing them " to worship God privately in their own houses
according to their own customs." It was, however, only in
the northern region of South America, the European settle-
ments, that real progress was made in the Bible cause ;
and that part of the subject we shall group with the West
Indies.

Returning once more to our own hemisphere, let it be
noted in passing that in the Faroe Isles, those half-sub-
merged mountain peaks set in a labyrinth of racing seas,
the news of the establishment of the Danish Bible Society
was hailed with delight, and a liberal subscription was
transmitted to its funds from the hardy islanders.

Last, the Greenlanders on the edge of the everlasting
glacier-ice had not been forgotten. To them also in 1813,
the British and Foreign Bible Society had sent as a greeting
300 New Testaments in their own harsh speech of ick and
ock. The little we know of the early story of Greenland is
extremely interesting. In the light of the old Sagas we get
a glimpse of the colony of Erik the Red — of Leif his son

I8l7] THE GREENLAND ESKIMO 233

returning from Olafs court with priests and monks, and
of Thiodhilda, Leifs wife, building a church at Brattelid,
"where she often went to repeat her prayers." In 1126,
Arnold, the first bishop, settles at Garde, on Einar's-fjord.
One may see still the grassy stone-heaps of the church at
Brattelid. Then the story of sea-faring and rude Norse life
closes with the Black Death. The few colonists who escaped
the plague were cut off or enslaved by the Skrellings. Ships
sailed no more for Greenland ; the very sailing route was
forgotten. The country was rediscovered by John Davis
in 1585. In 1721 the apostolic Hans Egede, finding no
trace of his own countrymen but graves, tumbled walls, and
Eskimo traditions, set himself to convert the natives. He
translated the Psalms and the Epistles of St Paul, and
his son Paul completed the New Testament, which was
published at Copenhagen in 1766. In 1733 the Moravian
missionaries arrived ; and they too spent many years on a
translation, which was finished in 1821 and printed in
London by the Society in 1822.

When Paul Egede left the country, after fifteen years of
labour and privation, he preached, for the last time, from
Isaiah xlix. : " I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent
my strength for nought, and in vain : yet surely my judg-
ment is with the Lord, and my work with my God." A
scoffing, callous, intractable people they seemed ; yet
beneath the rind of savagery there throbbed a wildly passion-
ate humanity, inarticulate for the most part, but vividly
expressed in one of their legends, which tells of a Green-
lander to whom home had been so dear that even in summer
he had never left it. In his age he felt an irresistible longing
to see other countries. He had not sailed far, however,
before he insisted on returning. On the morrow he rose
early, and left his tent ; and when his people had long
waited for him in vain, they went out and found him sitting
dead, His delight at seeing the sun rise over his home had

234 THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETIES (11.) [1804-1817

killed him.1 The Moravians, though for several years they
too spent their strength for nought, discovered the simple
way of the Gospel to the hearts of the people. The sight of
John Beck working at his translation excited the curiosity
of the Eskimo. They asked what he was writing ; he read
them the story of Gethsemane. As they heard of the agony
and sweat of blood, they laid their hands on their mouths
in wonder, and one of them, Kayarnack — the first-fruits of
Greenland — cried out, "How was that? Tell me that once
more. I too would be saved."

1 Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 466.

CHAPTER XIII

THE NEW WORLD

WE pass now from the Old World to the New.

Very different from what it is to-day was the aspect of
the New World of 1804. The Dominion which now ranges
through eighty-eight degrees of longitude, from St John's,
Newfoundland, to Mount St Elias, was represented in 1804
by the Hudson's Bay Territory, the Canadas, New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the adjacent
Islands. On the west, Lake Winnipeg marked the
boundary of Upper Canada (Ontario), the population of
which, twenty years earlier, did not exceed 10,000. Settlers
had not yet ventured far into the trackless forests and
swamps1 of the Indian tribes. In Lower Canada the popula-
tion about the same date was estimated at 95,000. The
territory of the Hudson's Bay Company extended to the
Great and Lesser Slave Lakes, longitude 115°; but the
White Man's tenancy of these illimitable hunting-grounds
was confined to a few forts and block-houses for truck and
trade in furs and peltry with the red tribes of Algonkins,
Sioux, and Chippeways.

The first great impulse to progress in these enormous
tracts sprang from the policy of the United States. Irri-
tated by the retaliatory restrictions imposed on commerce

1 The Muskegons, a branch of the Algonkins, derive their name from the
Muskeg, or bottomless swamp, which has since retarded and baffled many a railway
contractor.

235

236 THE NEW WORLD [1804-

by France and England, Congress in 1807 placed an
embargo on their own ports, and prohibited their citizens
from external intercourse. A more colossal instance of the
blindness of passion could scarcely be quoted. The
trade of one hundred to two hundred thousand tons
of shipping was annihilated at a stroke. England was
compelled to turn to the Canadas for her huge annual
imports of timber, pot and pearl ash, and other com-
modities, with the result that in 1814 the population
of Upper Canada had risen to 95,000, and that of the
eastern province to 335,000. Still, this was a mere hand-
ful compared with the millions of to-day ; and it was
many a year before the little trading colony of Fort
Garry, the capital of Lord Selkirk's settlement at the
confluence of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers grew into
the city of Winnipeg.

As for the United States, the contrast is even more
striking. In the year the Bible Society was founded the
Union comprised no more than eighteen States. The "Far
West" of the settler lay east of the Mississippi — the giant
river discovered by De Soto, the intrepid associate of
Pizarro ; on whose banks, when the ivy-clad Indians brought
the blind to be healed by the Children of the Sun, he uttered
the memorable words, " Pray only to God, who is in
Heaven, for whatsoever ye need ; " l in whose sweeping
waters he was silently buried in the dead of the night.
Louisiana, purchased from Napoleon for fifteen million
dollars in 1804 — and with it (the "Americans" contended)
Texas and all the country east of the Rio Grande — was
included among the States in 1812. The settled popula-
tion at the time of the transfer was 7000, principally
Spanish Creoles, and 14,000 wild Indians ; and its
capital, San Antonio, was for the most part a huddle of
wretched houses with mud walls and roofs thatched with

1 Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. i. p. 41.

i8i7] THE UNITED STATES IN 180010 237

grass;1 Indiana was enrolled in 1816 ; Mississippi in the
following year ; Florida was not ceded by Spain till 1819.

In 1800 the population of Pennsylvania was 602,000;
of New York State, 586,000 ; of Massachusetts, 423,000 ;
and, in the west and south, Indiana had its 4800, and
Mississippi its 8800. The dwellers in cities of 8000 or more
inhabitants were only four per cent, of the whole popula-
tion, which numbered 5,300,000 (893,000 slaves). By 1810
Pennsylvania had added nearly 200,000 to her population ;
New York over 400,000 ; Massachusetts 50,000 ; Indiana
had sextupled and Mississippi quintupled theirs. The total
population of what was to be the colossal Republic was
7,000,000 (1,191,000 slaves) — 10,000,000 less than that of the
United Kingdom — and the settled area was 407,945 square
miles. Realise it. To-day the population of the State
of New York alone exceeds by some hundreds of thousands
that of the entire Union, its settlements and territories, in
the year i8io.2

The fact that in that year the United States had 359 news-
papers, including 27 dailies — in the United Kingdom there
were 213 in 1808 — indicates that there was no lack of activity
and interest in social and political questions, though there
were as yet few indications of literary and artistic life.
The States presented a curiously varied and contrasting
grouping of characteristics and conditions. "New England
was still the home of independent religion and sober morals,
of solid intellect, and universal education, and careful
industry, although the Puritan grimness had moderated
and dwindled into a rather prim propriety. The Middle
States were still the seat of a mixed population, New
York in particular, a city of many tongues, having already
something of a cosmopolitan character ; Albany was a

1 Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, vol. xi. pp. 2, 4.

z In 1900 the population of the State of New York was 7,268,894 ; that of the
City of New York, 3,437,202.

238 THE NEW WORLD [l8o4-

staid half-Dutch town ; Philadelphia retained its reputa-
tion for quiet intelligence ; Baltimore and Washington
were gay society centres, while throughout the rural
districts might be found the honest and industrious if
rather dull Swedish, German, and Dutch farmers. . . .
The South was still deficient in schools and cities, although
Charleston remained a centre of intelligence and gaiety,
and Savannah, Raleigh, and Richmond were rising into
some prominence. But the old hospitality of the Southern
gentleman had only refined with time ; honour between
man and man, and chivalry towards woman, ennobled
Southern society ; and plantation life, with its habits of
self-reliance and command, continued to be a training-
school for leaders in national affairs. Our new possessions
in the South-west, including the old1 city of New Orleans,
had brought into the Union the new elements of French
gaiety and grace, of grave Spanish courtesy and romance,
elements destined to furnish rich subject-matter for our
literature in future years."2

If any, very few of the notable names of that time awaken
any associations when they strike our ears to-day. The men
whose names are familiar to our generation were youths
and children then. Washington Irving, a young fellow of
two-and-twenty, was in Europe the year the Bible Society
was founded, and might, so to say, have been present at
its first annual meeting. Seven years earlier he had roamed
with his gun in Sleepy Hollow ; and his voyage up the
Hudson and the sound of the thunder playing bowls
among the Kaatskill Mountains were memories of yesterday.
When the first American Bible Society was founded (at
Philadelphia, i2th December 1808), Fenimore Cooper was
serving in the Navy on the Great Lakes : certain waspish

1 "Old" relatively. It was founded in 1717; abandoned; resettled in 1722;
burnt down, seven-eighths of it, in 1 788 ; and rebuilt.

2 Bronson, A Short History of American Literature, p. 76.

i8i7] THE FIRST UNITED STATES BIBLE 239

little sea-fights on these vast inland waters are among

History's

" old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago."

He was still only nineteen, but as a child he had lived on
the shores of Otsego Lake on the edge of the immemorial
forest, and had talked with trappers and old Indian
fighters. In the autumn of 1811, when the New Jersey
Bible Society was acknowledging a foundation grant of
;£ioo from the London Committee, Byrant, a lad* of
seventeen, was writing Thanatopsis ; " four years later,
climbing the hills at sunset to his first place of trial as a
practitioner of the law, he saw a waterfowl ' darkly painted
on the crimson sky,' and his law career began with an
immortal poem written that very night."1 Emerson, then
or afterwards "a spiritual-looking boy in blue nankeen,"
was eight, and already too transcendental to care for
boyish games. Longfellow and Whittier were urchins of
four ; Edgar Allan Poe a motherless two-year-old, adopted
by John Allan of Richmond ; and Oliver Wendell Holmes
an autocrat of the same mature age, in "the old gambrel-
roofed house" in Cambridge.

Turning to the religious aspect of the period, it may
be interesting to mention that up to 1782 every English
Bible that America possessed had been brought across the
Atlantic. On i2th September in that year, "the United
States in Congress assembled" approved "the pious and
laudable undertaking" of Robert Aitken of Philadelphia in
preparing an edition of the Bible ; and it was published
before the peace of 1783. "It was our Biblical Declara-
tion of Independence," exclaimed an orator at the Centenary
of the Union, "one of the first-fruits of the Revolution,
and bears upon its fly-leaf the resolution by which the
first Congress officially l recommended this edition of the

1 Bronson, A Short History of American Literature, p. 138.

24o THE NEW WORLD tl8o4.

Bible to the inhabitants of the United States.' The same
hands that broke the fetters of the Colonies struck off the
chains from the Bible."1 Unhappily the freedom of the
Biblical press did not contribute extensively to the spread
of the Scriptures.

The religious developments in the United States during
the close of the eighteenth and the opening of the nineteenth
century form a subject too large, too complex, and too
difficult to be summarily treated in these pages ; but a
passage in Mr Branson's book indicates so suggestively
the reaction which was taking place among the more
cultured classes in those very States where the faith of their
fathers had been planted in sickness and hunger and sorrow,
that it may be given here, with the author's premise that
the words "liberal" and "orthodox" are used in a sense
wholly historical, and without implication of approval or
disapproval: — "Down to the time of the Great Awakening,
in 1734-44, Calvinism had reigned almost undisputed in
New England. But the reaction against the emotional
excesses of that tremendous revival brought to the surface
the more liberal tendencies which had doubtless been
germinating in the soil for some time. Contemporary
liberal thought in England furthered their growth. The
dispute turned at first upon the question how far a man's
will might be an agent in effecting his conversion. The
school of which Jonathan Edwards was the head asserted
the absolute sovereignty of God in this act, as in all others ;
the Arminian school, of which Charles Chauncy and
Jonathan Mayhew were the earliest leaders, affirmed that
the sinner, by diligently cultivating the means of grace,

1 The Bible in the Last One Hundred Years. An Historical Discourse for the
American Bible Society in the United States Centennial, by William J. R. Taylor,
D.D. Newark, N.J. Editions of John Eliot's (now obsolete) translation of the
Bible into the Indian of New England were published in 1663 and 1665, and three
editions of Luther's version between 1743 an(* *776> but the monopoly of the
English Universities and the King's Printers was maintained throughout the period of
effective English occupation.

V
'

i8i7] THE UNITARIAN MOVEMENT 241

and so fulfilling the conditions for receiving it, might co-
operate in his own regeneration. From this small begin-
ning the breach widened more and more. The doctrine
of the Trinity was soon openly attacked ; and although
the political ferment of the Revolution drew men's thoughts
largely away from theological questions, Unitarianism
quietly spread in eastern Massachusetts, until at the close
of the century there was scarcely a Trinitarian Congrega-
tional clergyman in Boston. No open separation, however,
had yet occurred. With the new century there came a
change. The appointment of five Unitarians to Professor-
ships in Harvard College, in 1805-07, made clear the
position of that venerable institution. By 1815 circum-
stances had compelled the liberal party reluctantly to accept
the distinctive title of 'Unitarian.' Four years later,
aroused by Channing's sermon at Baltimore on Unitarian
Christianity, the denomination assumed a more confident
and aggressive attitude, and entered upon a period of
controversy and expansion."1

Such then was the New World of the early years of
the Bible Society. Was it purely fortuitous that at the
moment Unitarianism was gaining strength and countenance,
Bible Societies were springing up in Hartford (Con.),
Boston, Portland (Maine), Baltimore? "The settlement of
New England was the result of implacable differences
between Protestant Dissenters and the Established
Anglican Church. ": Singular reparation! The spirit of
the Bible Society was a catholic charity which united in
brotherhood the descendants of both.

The example of the British and Foreign Bible Society
took root first in Philadelphia, William Penn's old "city
of refuge, the mansion of freedom, the home of humanity,
the birthplace of American independence."3 "It was

1 Bronson, A Short History of American Literature, p. 191.

2 Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. i. p. 201.

3 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 636. " Here, said the Quakers, we may worship God

VOL. I, Q

242 THE NEW WORLD

[1804-

immediately seen that the necessity for such an institution
was the same here as in Europe."1 The project originally
entertained by the promoters was a large association, con-
sisting of members selected from all the States in the
Union, to raise a common fund, and to distribute Bibles
in every part of the country. Preference was afterwards
given to an undertaking on a smaller scale, and the
Philadelphia Bible Society was established on the i2th
December 1808. The London Committee at once voted
a donation of ^"200, which was cordially accepted, and as
the supply of Scriptures required in Welsh, Gaelic, French
and German could not be obtained in the States, consign-
ments were sent out from England at cost price. The
first year's experience showed that the deficiency of Bibles
was much greater than had been expected. The number
of families and individuals destitute of a copy of the
Scriptures was so large that the " entire funds might
have been expended in supplying the wants of the city
alone " ; and the opportunities of distribution elsewhere
were so numerous that ten times the means at the
command of the newly formed society would have been
inadequate to the need.

The all-inclusive spirit of the parent institution spread
rapidly. " Drive from the recollections of Christians," it
was urged, "that they are of Paul, or of Apollos, or of
Cephas ; constrain them to remember that they are all of
Christ." In the following year (1809) six more societies were
founded — the Connecticut Bible Society (Hartford) in May,
the Massachusetts (Boston) in July, and the New Jersey
(Princeton) in the fall of the year; and a little later this
goodly company was joined by the New York Bible
Society, the Young Men's Bible Society, and the New
York Bible and Common Prayer Book Society.

according to the dictates of the Divine Principle, free from the mouldy errors of
tradition."

1 Address of the Philadelphia Bible Society, Report v. p. 239.

I8,7] RARITY OF THE SCRIPTURES 243

In Massachusetts the tradition of the Pilgrims had not
been forgotten. "To preserve the authority of this book
unimpaired, and to enjoy the privilege of a free conscience
enlightened by its truth, our forefathers crossed the ocean
with little more than this volume in their hands, and its
spirit in their hearts." And, with a confidence that was
very natural in the circumstances, the Boston committee
stated: "From the habits of New England ever since its
settlement, the deficiency of Bibles among our poor is
perhaps less considerable than in any other part of the
world. The principal demand for Bibles in New England
is from the most distant and lately settled regions of the
district of Maine." However exact this statement may
have been, even seven years later they acknowledged that
"many could hardly believe that the wants of our own
State should continue to be so great." Indeed in the New
World, as in the Old, it was very commonly taken for
granted that Bibles and Testaments were an almost
universal possession, and not until a conscientious inquiry
had been made was the unexpected rarity of the Scriptures
demonstrated.

In 1810 the movement included societies for Albany
(N.Y.), New Hampshire, Baltimore (Maryland), Salem and
Merrimac. (Mass.), Charleston and Beaufort (South Caro-
lina), Georgia (at Savannah), Kentucky, and Maine (at
Portland). The Georgia committee mentioned two circum-
stances which especially required the advantages of such
an institution. Through the exertions of several Christian
denominations, a religious revival had been initiated in
various parts of the State, "which a few years since
were noted only for their profligacy and immorality " ; and
a deep solicitude was felt for the negroes, many hundreds
of whom, both in towns and on the plantations, had
already embraced the faith of Christ.

When four more years had elapsed, the number of

244

THE NEW WORLD

[1804-

Bible Societies and Female Bible Associations in the
States had increased, as the following list will show, to
sixty-nine.

BIBLE SOCIETIES.

New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Vermont
Rhode Island .
Connecticut .
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania .
Delaware
Maryland

I

Virginia ....

ii

7

N. Carolina

I

2

S. Carolina

2

I

Georgia

I

I

Kentucky

I

12

Ohio ....

3

4

Tennessee

i

8

Mississippi Territory

i

i

Louisiana

i

2

District of Columbia

i

FEMALE BIBLE ASSOCIATIONS.

Poughkeepsie

Philadelphia

Boston

Manchester (Virginia)

Burlington (N.J.) .
Carlisle (Penn.)
Neuville (near Carlisle) .

Among these the Nassau Hall Society at Princeton was
founded in emulation of our Cambridge University Society,
by a number of the students of the New Jersey University
who desired "to wipe away the reproach so often levelled
at colleges, that while they are the receptacles of science
and literature, they reject or despise the study of the Sacred
Scriptures." The society for the District of Columbia in-
cluded the capital, Washington. The societies at Marietta
(Ohio), Lexington, Nashville (W. Tennessee), Natchez
(Mississippi), and New Orleans (Louisiana) were the fruit
of a missionary tour at the expense of the Philadelphia,
Connecticut, and New York Bible Societies.

The most important of these was the New Orleans, which
was founded on the 2Qth March 1813. Operating among
a free population of 100,000, of which 70,000 were Roman
Catholics, and a slave population of 40,000, it opened a new
region for the circulation of the Scriptures in French and

i8i7] ROMAN CATHOLIC APPROVAL 245

Spanish. The Roman Catholic Bishop examined the French
New Testament, and after expressing his approval, gave
permission for copies to be distributed in a convent of
Ursuline nuns, who educated the daughters of the principal
Roman Catholic families in the State. So far from making
any opposition to the missionaries, the priests were surprised
that opposition was considered possible. The dearth of
Scriptures was unquestionable. The Bishop himself doubted
whether there were ten Bibles among all the Roman Catholics
in New Orleans ; and when the Americans took over the
government of the country, it was not till after a long search
fora Bible to administer the oath of office, that a Latin Vulgate
was at last procured from a priest. There was no Protestant
minister stationed at New Orleans, and perhaps no Protestant
missionary had ever before set foot in the city. Protestants
there were, but many were as regardless of the Scriptures
"as if they had no souls," and the rest had no means of
procuring the Word of Life.

On receiving intelligence of this state of things the
Philadelphia Society resolved to print 6000 copies of the
French New Testament for gratuitous distribution among
the inhabitants of Louisiana, and the New York Society to
issue a similar number, for the benefit both of Louisiana
and the Canadas. The British and Foreign Bible Society
aided in the realization of these projects by granting ;£ioo
to the former and £200 to the latter organization.

In other respects, to notice merely an instance, the
cause was progressing favourably. The New York Society,
besides attending to local needs, had sent Bibles to a settle-
ment forming at the mouth of the Columbia River, and
had contributed to the fund for the Oriental versions in
India. By the close of 1814 it had distributed a total of
10,114 Bibles. Nor had the parent Society been slow to
manifest a practical sympathy. Besides giving a liberal
God-speed to several of the societies on starting, it had

246 THE NEW WORLD [1804-

aided the work of others. Amongst its grants were ^200
to Philadelphia towards the cost of an edition of the German
Bible, and £200 to lighten the expense of stereotype plates
of the English Bible. In 1814 the latter was in its sixth
edition, and the complete issue of the institution amounted
to 14,125 Bibles and 3250 Testaments. Connecticut had
circulated over 12,000 volumes.

It was during this period that once again the fires of
European battle-fields reddened the skies of the New World.
Napoleon's Berlin Decree had been promptly met by the
British declaration that the whole coast of France was in a
state of blockade, and that neutral ships trading with France
were liable to seizure. The United States Government
insisted that under a neutral flag all goods not contraband
of war were free. In 1811 Napoleon exempted the States
from the prohibition of the Decrees of Berlin and Milan ;
and in June 1812 a similar concession was made by Great
Britain. The latter measure came too late. Apparently in
the hope of carrying Canada by a coup-de-inain, the United
States had declared war against England a few days earlier.

But if the Americans were at war with England, "they
were not at war with her pious and benevolent institutions."
In June 1813 a supply of Bibles and Testaments, destined
by the London Committee for Nova Scotia, was captured
by an American privateer, brought into Portland, and sold
by auction. The Massachusetts Bible Society was stricken
"with shame and regret" at the occurrence, and an appeal
was made to the public of Boston for subscriptions to replace
the value of the books. In a day or two twice the amount
was forthcoming, and it might have been indefinitely
increased. And this was the same Boston where, less than
forty years before, a band of patriots seized the tea ships,
and the crowd stood in the dark so hushed and still that
the strokes of the axes, and the splintering of wood could
be heard as the chests were broken open, and the tea flung

i8i7r SUMMARY FOR 1815 247

into the sea. But here in the conflict of Governments there
was room for mutual regard and good-will. " The Christians
of England are still our brethren, their generous spirit we
are still bound to admire, and their efforts for the improve-
ment of mankind we are bound to aid and promote." Such
was the contention of the Massachusetts Society, and it is
to the glory of the Gospel that they were able to add : ' ' By
this act we shall do something towards repressing the
animosities and antipathies which the present war has a
tendency to generate between us and the neighbouring
British Provinces." On two other occasions the same
friendly service was rendered. In 1814 Massachusetts re-
deemed a consignment of captured Bibles and Testaments,
and forwarded them to the Cape ; and a third supply, which
was taken in to New York, was delivered up free of all
charge by the owners of the privateer, and sent on to Canada.
Happily this outbreak of hostilities between two kindred
peoples was brought to a close by the peace signed at Ghent
on Christmas Eve 1814.

During the next two years the Bible Societies, Auxiliaries,
and Female Associations multiplied with astonishing
rapidity. By December 1815 they numbered 108. Eleven
had been added to the list for New York ; eight each to that
of Pennsylvania and of Vermont. Four had been started in
the Indiana territory ; one in Illinois, further west ; even
"the Father of Waters" had at length been crossed, and the
Bible had a home in Missouri. In the State of New York
there was not a town to which Bibles had not been sent by
one or other of the newly-formed societies ; and from Cherry
Valley, fifty miles west of Albany, there came this curious
little note, which should be read with a map of the States
before one for reference : " It is a pleasing reflection that,
600 miles in the interior of our country, where fifteen years
ago the foot of civilized man had never trod, you now find
villages, churches, Bible Societies, and what is still more

248 THE NEW WORLD [1804-

cheering, real piety." At New Orleans the priests appeared
to be emulating their co-religionists in Germany and Russia ;
and the number of Spaniards from Havannah, Campeachy,
and the Mexican provinces who took home with them copies
of the New Testament, seemed to herald a splendid range
of operations for this Bible Society of the South.

On the other hand, the work that had to be accomplished
was enormous. In 1814 it was estimated that there were
in Ohio 13,000 families destitute of the Scriptures ; in the
territories of Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, 12,000; in
Mississippi Territory, 5000 ; in Louisiana, 8000 ; 10,000 in
Tennessee ; and 30,000 in Kentucky. From 1809 to the
beginning of 1816, it was pointed out, the number of Bibles
distributed by all the societies did not exceed 150,000 —
the number, it was estimated, still needed to supply the
single State of Kentucky.

We have now reached the point at which it is convenient
to refer to the material assistance — in money, plates, or copies
of the Scriptures — which the British and Foreign Bible
Society was enabled to extend during these tentative years
to the pioneers of the Bible cause in the United States.
The following list shows the societies to which grants
were made up to the close of the year 1816-17.

Philadelphia Bible Society ^765
Connecticut Bible Society . 154
Massachusetts Bible Socy. . 100
New York Bible Society . 500
New Jersey Bible Society . 100
Maine Bible Society . . 100
S. Carolina Bible Society . 100
Georgia Bible Society1 . 100
New York Bible and Com-
mon Prayer Book Society2 1 50

Albany Bible Society . . .£50

Baltimore Bible Society . 100

Virginia Bible Society . 100

Louisiana Bible Society . 603

Nassau Hall Bible Society 50

Rhode Island Bible Society 100

Delaware Bible Society . 100

Ohio Bible Society . . 100

Total . ,£3272

1 The Georgia Society, in reporting its establishment, deprecated any grant being
made by the parent institution, but the importance of the work seemed to justify a
friendly insistence on the part of the London Committee.

2 As in the case of the Swedish Evangelical Society, the Bible work of this
organisation constituted a separate and independent department.

,817] THE AMERICAN B.S. FOUNDED 249

The labours of these seven years had prepared the
public mind for the great undertaking, of which, even at
the outset, the Philadelphia Society had indulged a transi-
tory dream. In May 1816 a convention of delegates from
the different societies in the Union was summoned by the
Hon. Elias Boudinot, LL.D., President of the New
Jersey Society. Thirty-one institutions were represented
by sixty delegates ; the sittings were held in the Con-
sistory Room of the Dutch Reformed Church, New York ;
and the proceedings lasted from the 8th till the i3th. " In
that convention there were revolutionary patriots, soldiers,
and statesmen ; presidents and professors of colleges and
theological seminaries ; the most eminent surgeon of his
generation ; and plain untitled citizens. There were
Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Baptists, Reformed Dutch,
Congregationalists, Friends ; and Dr Morse, who was a
member, says, ' Roman Catholics among the rest.' But
among them all there was not a dissentient voice ; and so
great was the Christian harmony and love, that some
of those least affected could not help crying out, ' This is
none other than the work of God ! ' " l

Thus in its appointed season the American Bible
Society was established.

Dr Boudinot was prevented by ill-health from being
present, but it was fitting that the society should with
unanimous voice call to the presidential chair the man
who, three-and-thirty years before, had as President of the
Congress of the United States, signed the treaty of peace
which established the independence of the American
people.2 The tidings of these events were received with
great joy and thankfulness by the British and Foreign
Bible Society, who testified to their good wishes by a
donation of ^500, and a duplicate set of stereotype plates
for the French Bible.

1 Taylor, The Bible in the Last One Hundred Years.

2 Dr Boudinot, who intimated the formation of the American Society to the
Committee at Earl Street, contributed a donation of $10,000 to its funds.

250 THE NEW WORLD [l8o4-

This great object had not been accomplished, however,
without opposition. In the New World, as in the Old,1
hostility proceeded from a quarter whence it ought naturally
to be least anticipated. On the first intimation that practical
measures had been taken, Dr Hobart, Bishop of New York,
appealed through the press to the Episcopalians not to
countenance the projected society, and to "avoid," by an
exclusive support of the Bible and Common Prayer Book
Society, "the humiliating and injurious spectacle of a
divided household." A rejoinder instantly followed. It
was pointed out that of the eight bishops who were the
appointed guardians of this "household," six approved
of the Bible Societies ; one had made no pronouncement
of any kind; the eighth, "after a declaration of the six
had been explicitly made," denounced the societies as
dangerous. "By whom was the household divided?"

We leave the States on the threshold of a new epoch.
The wagon-trains were streaming further and ever further
into the sunset ; and further and still further into the west
the Red Men were retreating before the bees, and the weed
which is called "the White Man's foot"; the Bible had
crossed the Mississippi, had reached the shores of Mexico
and the Southern Continent. Little more than a decade
had gone by since Red Jacket, one of the last of the great
Iroquois orators, addressed the missionary Cram at the
council at Buffalo, in words which must have burned into
the memory of every lover of the Bible: "Brother, listen
to what we say. There was a time when our forefathers
owned this great island. Their seats extended from the
rising to the setting sun. The Great Spirit had made it
for the use of Indians. . . . But an evil day came upon us ;
your forefathers crossed the great water, and landed on
this island. . . . They told us they had fled from their
country for fear of wicked men, and came here to enjoy their
religion. They asked for a small seat ; we took pity on

1 See chap. xv.

,8i7] BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 251

them, granted their request, and they sat down among us ;
we gave them corn and meal, they gave us poison (fire-
water) in return. . . . Brother, our seats were once large,
and yours were very small ; you have now become a great
people, and we have scarcely a place left to spread our
blankets ; you have got our country, but are not satisfied ;
you want to force your religion upon us."

To that indignant cry it remained for the American
Bible Society to make such answer as lay in the power of
Christian men.

It will be within recollection that the first application of
the funds of the British and Foreign Bible Society for a
foreign version of the Scriptures was made in favour of the
Mohawk translation of the Gospel of St John, and that an
edition of 200 copies was printed. Various quantities were
distributed among the Indians of the Six Nations in Upper
Canada, in Ohio, and Oneida County ; but we may defer
more than a reference to the subject till we come to speak
more fully of the work among the Red Tribes. The first
transaction with men of our own colour in British North
America appears to have been a grant, on the 2nd February
1807, of 200 Testaments to the people of Nova Scotia — the
old French Acadie, from the history of which one sorrowful
yet beautiful episode will live long in the pages of Evangeline.
According as needs were made known and ships were
available, Bibles and Testaments — in Gaelic, Welsh, English,
and French — were sent out to Newfoundland, New Brunswick,
Prince Edward Island, Bermuda, Quebec, and Montreal.
Towards the close of 1808 the suggestion of the London
Committee began to bear fruit, and steps were taken to
establish local Auxiliaries. In the following year the first
of various congregational collections was transmitted to the
British and Foreign Bible Society.

On the 24th November 1813, the Bible Society of Nova

252 THE NEW WORLD [1804-

Scotia and its dependencies was formed at Halifax, under
the Presidency of the Lieut.-Governor, Sir John Coape
Sherbroke, with the principal naval and civil officers as
vice-presidents, and in little more than a fortnight it pre-
sented a first free donation of £200 to the Society. Here
too, however, opposition was not wanting. The British and
Foreign Bible Society was represented in the provincial
papers as a usurper of the functions of the Society for Pro-
moting Christian Knowledge — insignificant in itself, and yet
pregnant with mischief to Church and State alike ; but the
public mind, if any hesitation existed, was decided by the
judgment of the Governor, who "regretted that there could
be found in that province any person to oppose so pious
an undertaking." Branches were speedily formed in various
parts of the province, and the usual discovery was made "that
the want of Bibles was greater than had been imagined."

A small society was also formed at Pictou, for the
eastern part of Nova Scotia, another at Quebec, a third at
Niagara ; and grants of £200 were held out to Canada and
Newfoundland if representative institutions were established.
During this period the London Committee distributed
in British North America and the Islands nearly 3500
Bibles and 9000 Testaments, at a cost of ^1700. On the
other hand, in addition to congregational offerings, the
following contributions had been made by the Auxiliaries :

Date of Formation. Contributions.

1813 (Nov. 24) Nova Scotia Bible Society (Halifax)
Branches — Annapolis Royal, Antigonishe,
Chester, Cornwallis, Cumberland, Hamp-
shire, Horton, Londonderry, Parrs-
borough, Queen's County, Shelburn,

Truro ,£1063

1813 Pictou (Nova Scotia) 170

1813 Quebec (Lower Canada) .... 201
1816 Yarmouth and Argyle (Nova Scotia) . . 75

^1509

i8i7] THE ESKIMO OF LABRADOR 253

One more field of labour in these latitudes remains to
be noticed — Labrador. When the Northmen first tasted the
honeydew on the grass of Nantucket and plucked the grapes
of Wine-land, a "dwarf species of men, by the Norse-
men called Skrellings, and apparently wild men of the
Esquimaux race, dwelling in caves, peopled New England,
and in sufficient numbers to discourage colonisation."1
Whether the Iroquois and Algonkins, or some earlier
race of Indians, drove them north-eastward to the ice-hills
and stony lowlands of Labrador, one can but conjecture.
The name "Labrador" — the "Slave-land" — is the sole
trace left of the early Portuguese adventurers, and it indicates
"what was the main object of the explorer of the fifteenth
century. Gold, and in default of it, slaves were the only
things worth carrying back to Europe."

For nearly forty years before the foundation of the Bible
Society a Moravian mission, stationed at three settlements
on the coast, had been engaged in spreading the light of
the Gospel. They had been attracted to Labrador by the
report that the natives spoke the same tongue as the
Greenlanders, but they soon discovered that the Green-
land version of the Scriptures was unintelligible to these
tribes. In 1809 the Gospel of St John, prepared by the
Rev. B. Kohlmeister, who for eighteen years had been a
missionary at Okkak, was submitted to the Society. The
Committee not only printed it, but encouraged the vener-
able superintendent, the Rev. C. F. Burghardt, at Nain,
to proceed with the translation of the New Testament, or
any complete portion of it.

In the following summer Mr Kohlmeister, who had
been on a visit to Europe, reached Hopedale Bay with
copies of the new Gospel. "Our dear Eskimo," he writes,
"crowded around us; the aged Thomas was the first who

1 Payne, History of America^ vol. i. p. 74,
- Ibid., vol. i. p. 217,

254 THE NEW WORLD tl8o4-

came on board, even before we had anchored. He fell on
my neck, wept, and addressed me with these words : ' Art
thou indeed Benjamin? And do I see thee once more
before I die?' Immediately after, our ship was surrounded
by kayaks, and the men in them most joyfully hailed
our arrival, which was again repeated by the women and
children at our landing. I could not refrain from tears of
joy, when I found myself once more in the midst of my
beloved Eskimo, and felt a peculiar impression of peace
among this flock of Christ, collected from the heathen."

The distribution was made in the winter, when all had
returned from their hunting excursions ; and as the books
were given only to those who could read, considerable
progress was made by scholars of all ages. The people
took " St John" with them to the islands when they went
out in search of fish or game, seals, wild geese, or berries ;
and in their tents or snow houses they spent the evenings
reading by the glimmer of the moss in their lamps of
soapstone. But most they liked to gather at nightfall, when
they returned from the sea or the hunting-ground, in
some large dwelling, and hear the Word of God read by
some one, child or adult, who had been taught in the
schools of the mission.

In January 1813 versions of the three other Gospels
were sent to the Committee. They had been completed,
with the Epistles to the Corinthians, by Mr Burghardt
shortly before he closed his earthly labours in the preced-
ing July. They were printed without delay ; and when
the copies were distributed they were kissed with tears
of joy and pressed to the breasts of the recipients. The
translation of the Acts and the Epistle to the Romans was
completed in 1815, and in the following year an edition
of the Acts was printed. Such was the beginning of the
Society's intercourse with the strange race who call them-
selves Innuit, ''The Men."

,8i7] THE WEST INDIES 255

The first contact with the West Indies was a grant of
100 French Testaments which were sent to San Domingo
early in 1807. In the summer of the following year an
interesting letter was received from "one of the people
called Quakers," whose trading had been greatly prospered
at St John's, Antigua, and who, from his frequent
transactions with many of the islands and the Spanish
Main l was able to offer, free of freight, insurance, and
expense, to distribute the Scriptures among soldiers in
barracks, sailors on men-of-war, the sick in hospitals,
overseers, and others "who may have long since neglected
such reading." One hundred Bibles and nine hundred
Testaments, in various languages, to the value of ;£ii8,
were consigned to his care.

During the next eight years copies of the Scriptures
in Spanish, Dutch, English, and French — over 4000 Bibles
and nearly 11,500 Testaments (^2330), — were distributed
not only in the far-scattered archipelago, but at various
points on the mainland — Paramaribo in Surinam, Demerara
and Berbice in British Guiana, and among the settlers
in Honduras. Consignments were sent from time to time
to the Bahamas, Cuba, San Domingo, and Jamaica ; to St
Thomas,2 one of that countless group, the Virgin Islands,
which to the mediaeval sea-farer suggested the legend of
St Ursula and her eleven thousand maidens ; to St Kitt's,
St Bartholomew, and Antigua ; to Guadaloupe, which took
its name from the venerable convent of our Lady of
Guadaloupe, in Estremadura ; 3 to Dominica, the landfall of

JNot the sea, but the links (Spanish maitea = shackles) of islands bounding the
Caribbean Sea north and east, beginning from the Mosquito Shore (Honduras)
comprising Jamaica, Hayti, and the Leeward and Windward Islands, and trending
to the coast of Venezuela, which last got its name, " Little Venice," from the score
of circular huts, built on piles on a lagoon connected with drawbridges, that Hojeda
saw during his explorations in 1499.

2 It was to the slaves of St Thomas that the Moravian Church inaugurated its
earliest foreign mission in 1732, under the direction of its General Synod.

3 At the very moment that the Bible Society was exercising its benevolence here, the
old-world treasures of the great Spanish convent — the diamonds, pearls, gold, and
jewels, the offerings of kings — were being looted by Victor, Napoleon's Marshal, who

256 THE NEW AVORLD [l8o4.

the second voyage of Columbus, sighted on a Sunday
morning, 3rd November 1493, and called after the Lord's
Day ; to Tobago ; and to Trinidad, which, on his third
voyage, rose with its three peaks — almost miraculously
Columbus thought, for he had vowed that the first land he
saw should receive the name of the Trinity.

About midway between Dominica and Tobago lies the
Island of St Vincent. There too in due season the Word
of Life shall be distributed, but in the meanwhile, and
always, it is of interest to those who care for the early
Bible Society men. It was Granville Sharp who stayed
in 1773 the military expedition which was planned for the
extermination of the Caribs in St Vincent, and procured
their deportation to Roatan Island, whence they were
eventually transferred to Honduras.

At Paramaribo the Moravian mission had a congrega-
tion of 500 negroes, many of whom had learned to read,
and among the islands there were at least 12,000 negroes
belonging to the same communion. A correspondent
reported that at St Kitt's and Antigua the prejudice against
the negroes learning to read had in some degree subsided.
The more earnest among them stole time from their rest
to learn, and many an hour of the night was given to the
Book of books. Indeed it was discovered that the number
of slaves who had acquired the knowledge of letters was
unexpectedly large. On the plantations masters who looked
askance on any effort at self-improvement soon changed
their views: "they saw thieves becoming honest, rebellious
persons obedient, and instead of meetings for dancing
and revelling, heard of gatherings for prayer and praise."

In 1812-13, although the times were hard, and many of
the planters had to sell slaves and working cattle to pay
their way, contributions amounting to more than ^750

carried off nine cart-loads of silver, but piously left the wooden image, which, like that
of our Lady of Smolensk, was said to have been the work of St Luke, and to have
been given by Gregory the Great to San Leandro, " the Gothic uprooter of Arianisnv'

i8i7] JAMAICA AND HAYTI 257

were forwarded to the Bible Society by the clergy of Jamaica,
the Corporation of Kingston, the Justices and Vestry of the
Parish of Westmorland, and other friends of the Bible
cause. Nor was this liberality confined to the white popula-
tion of the island. The Jamaica Auxiliary of the People
of Colour was founded. "Disparaged as we have hitherto
been, and still continue to be, by the operation of local
prejudices, we rejoice," they wrote, "that an opportunity
is held out to us to manifest how much we appreciate the
exertions of so excellent an institution, as being calculated
to administer to the relief of all men, whatever be their nation
or complexion." Their first contribution, in 1814, amounted
to ^55 ; their second, in the following year, exceeded ^140.

An Auxiliary was established at Antigua on the Qth
February 1815, and another at Berbice towards the close of
the year. The former contributed ^152, and the latter £$o,
during the period now under reviews

In San Domingo, too, the efforts of the Society were
heartily welcomed. After the expulsion of the French, in
1804, Jacques Dessalines, who had been originally a slave
but had risen to be second in command to the unhappy
Toussaint L'Ouverture, was elected Governor for life.
He promptly assumed the style of Jacques I., Emperor of
Hayti, but through his tyranny and ambition fell a victim
to a military conspiracy in 1806. Henry Christophe, one
of the leaders of the insurgent slaves, was next appointed
Chief Magistrate for life, and defeated his rival Alexander
Petion, a mulatto, who had been trained as an engineer in
the military school at Paris and had been an able lieutenant
to Toussaint and Dessalines. Petion withdrew to the south-
western part of the island, where he maintained himself as
President of Hayti till his death. Christophe, like his
predecessor, assumed the purple as Henry I., King of
Hayti, and degenerated into a cruel and avaricious despot.
In 1815, when Captain Reynolds of the merchant ship

VOL. I. R

258 THE NEW WORLD [1804-1817

Hebe was distributing Bibles at Port-au-Prince, he pre-
sented copies to President Petion and his secretary, and
received the assurance that the books were "scarce in that
country, and if circulated would greatly contribute to the
welfare of the Haytians." It need scarcely be said that the
Committee at once acted on the information forwarded to
them. A set of the Society's reports and a French Bible
were also sent to King Christophe, with the result that his
Minister for Foreign Affairs asked for copies of the Scriptures,
and afterwards for a New Testament with the French and
English in parallel columns. Both requests were complied
with : 500 Bibles and 1000 Testaments in the ordinary style,
and 3000 diglots were despatched, and intelligence was
received that the Scriptures were introduced into all the
schools, which were spreading over the larger division of
the island.

Petion died in 1818; King Henry I. shared the fate of
the Emperor Jacques I. According to some accounts, he
was massacred by his own troops ; according to others,
finding that even his bodyguard could not be depended
upon, he shot himself through the heart on the 8th October
1820.

CHAPTER XIV

IN THE EAST (l.)

THE early record of the Bible Society's operations in the
East brings us into close contact with men whose names
will for ever be "a glory and a sweetness" to the Christian
Church, whose story will be read with undiminished interest
to the end of " the years of the Lord." There were the
memorable "Five Chaplains," David Brown, Claudius
Buchanan, Henry Martyn, Daniel Corrie, Thomas
Thomason ; there was the devoted band of Baptist mission-
aries— William Carey, Joshua Marshman, William Ward —
at Serampore, the small Danish "Camp of Refuge"
thirteen miles north of Calcutta. Without their co-opera-
tion, if one may depend on human judgment, little could
have been achieved by the Society in the vast regions of
heathendom ; without the aid of the Society a century
would hardly have sufficed for the work which they accom-
plished in a couple of decades.

Within a month of its foundation the attention of the
Society had been eagerly fixed on the remote East, but
due inquiry and discussion had compelled the relinquish-
ment, at least for the time, of the hope of distributing a
Chinese version of the New Testament among the millions
of the Yellow Race.1 In India, however, notwithstanding
the hostile policy which had long been a tradition of the
East India Company, some prospect of a future of splendid
activity was augured from the known disposition of several

1 Chap. ii. p. 24.

269

26o IN THE EAST (i.) [1804-

of the Company's servants at Calcutta, and from the pro-
'gress already made in translations by the missionaries at
Serampore. Here, it seemed, were the elements of that
zealous catholicity on which the Society based all its antici-
pations of enduring service. On the 23rd July 1804,
accordingly, the Committee resolved to intimate the fact
of its establishment, to invite information as to the best
means of promoting its objects in regard to Oriental
languages, and to request Mr George Udny, member of
the Council, the Rev. David Brown, senior chaplain at
Fort William, and the Revs. C. Buchanan, W. Carey,
W. Ward, and J. Marshman to form themselves into a
Committee of Correspondence with the Society, and to
associate themselves with such other gentlemen in any part
of India as they might think proper.

Various delays and discouragements intervened between
the despatch of this communication and the actual forma-
tion of the Corresponding Committee. "You will justly
wonder," wrote David Brown in September 1806, "why
we have been so slow in replying to your letter inviting us
to co-operate with you. I answer in one word. We have
lost Lord Wellesley,1 the friend of religion and the patron
of learning ; and succeeding Governors have opposed all
attempts to evangelise the Hindus ; have opposed the
translation of the Holy Scriptures ; have opposed the
formation of a society for carrying into effect here the
objects of your invaluable institution. Persons holding
official situations were requested not to act, except in
their private capacity. We have therefore been obliged
to commit the work, for the present, to the Society of
Missionaries at Serampore, and afford them such aid and
protection as we can give without offending Government."

This inveterate opposition to the spread of the Gospel

1 joth July 1805, when he was superseded by Lord Cornwallis, who died at
Ghazipore on the 5th of the following October. Sir George Hilaro Barlow
succeeded.

i8i7] THE POLICY OF THE E.I.C. 261

in Hindustan is one of the strangest anomalies in our
history as a Christian people. It was not merely the incon-
sistency which so frequently divides profession from
practice, but, in its later stages at least, it was a deliberate
policy, audaciously avowed and unblushingly advocated,
though there were not wanting those in high places who
plainly manifested their dissent and disapproval. "The
early agents of the Company," as a brilliant writer
observes, "were very different men from the early
1 pilgrims ' to the American colonies. To the efforts made to
evangelise the Red Men of New England there was no parallel

in India Job Charnock, the founder of Calcutta

and the first Governor of Bengal, became an avowed
pagan under the influence of his native wife, and after her
death annually sacrificed a cock upon her tomb."1 The
Company had been eighty years in India before the first
church was built, and that apparently was the single-
handed act of piety of Streynsham Master, the chief of
the Factory at Madras ; and after a while it became
fashionable to attend public worship on Christmas Day
and Easter Sunday.

It was only after ninety years' traffic and rule at
Tranquebar, it is true, that Frederick IV. of Denmark
awoke to the fact that no ship had ever carried a Danish
missionary to preach the Gospel ; but even the labours of
the Tranquebar Mission, the noble example of Ziegenbalg
and Schwartz,2 failed to arouse in the English heart any
responsive spirit of emulation. Chaplains were sent out

1 Stock, History of the Church Missionary Society, vol. i. p. 51.

2 The Danish settlement of Tranquebar was on the Coromandel coast, twenty
miles north of Negapatam, and enclosed on the land side by the district of Tanjore,
in the Madras Presidency. " Under Schwartz the Mission extended far beyond the
little Danish settlement of Tranquebar. From Madras to Tinnevelly, over the whole
Tamil country — in particular in what was then the independent Kingdom of Tanjore
— its influence spread, and numerous congregations were gathered. These Missions,
unlike Tranquebar itself, were not under the Danish administration, but were more
directly the work of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, though the
missionaries came from the same German sources." — Stock, Op. ctt., vol. i. p. 25.

262 IN THE EAST (i.) [^04-

to the garrisons and ''superior Factories," in accordance
with the Company's charter, but it was not till 1715 that
the settlers in Calcutta "'built God a church, and laughed
His word to scorn' for many years afterwards."1 The
steeple was blown down by the hurricane of 1737; and in
1756 — the evil year of the Black Hole — the whole building
was destroyed by Surajah Dowla ; two years later when
Clive invited Kiernander from Tranquebar, the Christians
of Calcutta had no place of worship. At a cost of ^7000,
of which he himself contributed ^5000, Kiernander
built them Beth Tephillah, "the House of Prayer," better
known as the Old (Mission) Church. "Society," writes
Sir John Kaye, "was doubtless at that time less
scandalously depraved than it had been in the time of Job
Charnock, but it was a long way off from a becoming
state of morality, and the religion of the settlement was
mainly the worship of gold. . . . Men drank hard, and
gamed high. It was no uncommon thing for English
gentlemen to keep populous zenanas. . . . The natives
of India marvelled whether the British acknowledged any
God. And in truth a large number of our countrymen,
whatever may have been their creed or their no-creed,
practically ignored the fact. Acquiring Oriental tastes and
Oriental habits, they soon began to look with bland tolera-
tion upon the religions of the country, and ceased to see
anything either very absurd or very revolting in the faith
of the Hindoo, or the creed of the Mussulman. Of this
school were the men who, at a later period, endeavoured
to persuade the world of the pure religions and the
excellent moralities of the natives of India, and declaimed
against the wickedness and the danger of attempting to
wean them from such blessed conditions of knowledge
and belief."2

1 Kaye, Christianity in India, p. 88.

2 Kaye, Op. cit., pp. 89-95.

i8i7] AT THE SHRINE OF KALI 263

It is natural to allow some weight to the plea of reckless-
ness, of the excitement of danger, of the intoxication of
fortune-making, and especially to the plea of the character of
the time, which may be urged in palliation of those bygone
years of irreligion and licentiousness, when Charnock,1
driven out of Hooghly, sailed down the great river to Kali's
Acre (Kalkatta), and planted the Company's flag under a
shady tree, somewhere between the modern Mint and the
Sobha Bazaar ; but it is not easy to make similar allowance
for the later men, who transmitted the old traditions, and
made possible the amazing spectacle of a deputation going
in procession as late as 1802 to Kalighat — the temple of the
sanguinary goddess to whom human life had once been
openly sacrificed, and whose courts still reeked with the fume
of the shambles — and presenting "a thank-offering to the
goddess of the Hindoos, in the name of the Company, for
the success which the English have lately obtained in this
country. "!

Let it not be forgotten that through all these scandalous
times there were God-fearing men who held high positions
in the Company's service. Streynsham Master, who had
served under Sir George Oxenden — the good President, at
whose death "piety grew sick and the building of churches
unfashionable " at Bombay — was no obsolete or solitary
instance. When in 1787 blindness and poverty had fallen
on the aged Kiernander, and his Beth Tephillah had been

1 In the pavilion near the Old Cathedral in Calcutta there is a tablet in memory
of Job Charnock. One would like to read a deeper meaning than perhaps the writer
intended when he penned the beautiful lines with which the inscription closes : —
" Qui postquam in solo non
Suo peregrinatus esset diu
Reversus est domum suae yEternitatis
decimo die Januarii, 1692."

•i " Five thousand rupees were offered. Several thousand natives witnessed the
English presenting their offerings to this idol " (Reminiscences of Seventy Years' Life,
Travel, and Adventure, by a Retired Officer, H.M.'s Civil Service, vol. i. p. 59, ».).
If, however, the Honourable Company paid tribute to Kali, they amply recouped
themselves from the tax levied on the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who crowded
yearly to the temple of the obscene and murderous Juggernaut, which was under their
immediate control. — Buchanan, Christian Researches in Asia, pp. 10-19.

264 IN THE EAST (i.) [1804-

seized by his creditors, Charles Grant redeemed the one place
of worship1 in the settlement, with its school and burying-
ground; vested it in his own name and those of William
Chambers, protonotary in the Supreme Court of Calcutta,
and David Brown, chaplain of the Military Orphan Asylum ;
and applied to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
for a clergyman, whose stipend of ^360 a year he under-
took to pay out of his own purse. A Mr Clarke was
sent out in 1789 — the first English missionary sent to India ;
he left, however, after a few months ; his successor, Mr
Ringeltaube, arrived eight years later, but some time after-
wards he became the pioneer of the London Missionary
Society in Travancore. Meanwhile David Brown, who had
resigned his appointment at the Asylum, ministered at the
House of Prayer, which he served, excepting during
Ringeltaube's incumbency, for twenty-three years, with-
out pay, but assuredly not without reward. It was at the
beginning of these events that these three friends, and
George Udny, whose name has already been mentioned, pro-
jected the scheme for a Bengal Mission, which eventually led
to the formation of the Church Missionary Society.

The inimical attitude of the East India Company towards
the evangelization of India is not easily understood, for even
in the wickedest of the old times we read of the Honourable
Court of Directors protesting against " the disorderly and
unchristian conversation of some of their factors and
servants"; taking order to render "the religion we profess
amiable in the sight" of the heathen; even contemplating
the instruction of "the Gentoos that shall be the servants
or slaves of the said Company, or of their agents, in the
Protestant religion." In 1789, when David Brown and
Charles Grant were shaping their Mission project, Lord

1 The foundation stone of St John's, the " Old Cathedral," had been laid in 1784,
but the church was not consecrated till June 1787. Mr Brown, who was appointed
a Company's chaplain, ministered for many years both here and at the Mission
church,

i8i7] HOSTILITY TO MISSIONARIES 265

Cornwallis, who had effected a wonderful reform in Anglo-
Indian society, but who seemed to regard the natives as
beyond the reach of the divine arm, could do no more than
promise an official neutrality. " Rightly considered," as
Sir John Kaye remarks, " neutrality was all that ought to
have been desired. " l Neutrality in the circumstances may
have been the only wise policy conceivable ; but unhappily
neutrality was a principle unknown in Leadenhall Street.
"The ships which sailed for India were the Company's
ships ; and any captain of a vessel carrying out such un-
licensed persons [as preachers of the Gospel] might forfeit
his appointment, and be ruined for life." In 1793, as we
have seen, the Company succeeded in persuading the
Parliament of Christian England to commit twenty millions
of people (in Wilberforce's phrase) "to the providential
protection of — Brama," by throwing the Mission clauses
out of their new Charter Bill. In 1799, when four Baptist
missionaries arrived at Calcutta in an American ship, they
were peremptorily ordered to leave the country. Yet, with
a curious versatility, while the Company were opposing
every attempt to introduce Christianity, they were able
almost in the same breath to pay the highest tribute to the
Christian missionary. The occasion was the death of
Schwartz.

The venerable Schwartz had passed to his reward in 1798.
" All classes of men, from the Directors of the great Company
to the little dark-faced children who had flocked around
him with up-looking filial affection, deplored the good man's
death, and revered his memory. Our two greatest sculptors,
Bacon and Flaxman, carved the image of the holy man in
marble — the one for the East India Company, to be erected
in the principal church at Madras, the other for the Tanjore
Rajah, to be placed in the Mission church."2 On no

1 Kaye, Christianity in India, pp. 137, 223.
- Kaye, Of. cit. , p. 82.

266 IN THE EAST (i.) [1804-

subject, the Court of Directors declared, had they been
more unanimous than in their anxious desire to perpetuate
the memory of this eminent person, and to excite in others
an emulation of his great example. They directed a sermon
to be preached on the missionary's character and career,
and translations of the inscription, recording the Company's
desire to perpetuate "the memory of such transcendent
worth," and their grateful recognition of "the public benefits
which resulted from its influence," to be published through-
out the districts in which Schwartz had laboured.

It may have been that under the personal influence of
Charles Grant, "the real ruler of the rulers of the East," the
Company was inclining towards a modification of the tradi-
tional policy, possibly towards the adoption of Cornwallis's
neutrality. The Vellore Mutiny, which took place on the
loth July 1806 (some time before the statue reached Madras),
and which was ascribed to the presence of missionaries
and to the horror of the natives at the prospect of being
coerced into Christianity, occasioned a panic both in India
and at home, which rendered such a departure impossible,
if it had ever been contemplated. In India, ror the next
six years, ten missionaries, English and American, were
forbidden to land. In England appeals were made to
political and commercial timidity to eject all missionaries
from the Company's territories, and to arrest the translation
of the Scriptures into the native languages.

Mr Thomas Twining, sometime senior merchant on the
Bengal establishment, published a letter to the Chairman
of the Company, in which he stated that his "fears of
attempts to disturb the religious systems of India " had
been "especially excited by hearing that a Society existed
in this country, the chief object of which was the universal
dissemination of the Christian faith." If the leading
members of that Society were also leading members of the
East India Company, of its Court of Directors, nay, of its

i8i7] INDIAN VERSIONS BEGUN 267

Board of Control, " then were our possessions in the East
already in a situation of the most imminent and un-
precedented peril ; and no less a danger than the threatened
extermination of our Eastern Sovereignty commanded us
to arrest the progress of such rash and unwarrantable pro-
ceedings." A sharp conflict of pamphlets ensued. Mr
Owen, the Secretary of this menaceful Society, skilfully
defended its principles and procedure ; and when the
eventful day came on which it was feared that a summary
interdict might be imposed on the Bible Society's opera-
tions in British India, Mr Twining found so little encourage-
ment to expect a favourable result that he withdrew his
notice of motion. Lord Teignmouth and Bishop Porteus
afterwards descended into the arena ; and in April 1808,
in the first number of the Quarterly, Robert Southey replied
to the furious tirade of Sydney Smith in the Edinburgh of
the preceding April.1

From this imperfect sketch something may be gathered
of the complexion of the time in which the Bible Society
made its first overtures to the Christians of Calcutta. The
communication requesting David Brown and his friends to
form themselves into a Corresponding Committee was crossed
by a letter from William Carey, "chief minister of the
Baptist Mission in the East Indies," to Mr Andrew Fuller,
the secretary of the Mission, who laid it before the Com-
mittee of the Bible Society. " We have engaged in a trans-
lation of the sacred Scriptures," wrote Mr Carey, "into
the Hindustani, Persian, Mahratta, and Ootkul (Oriya)
languages ; and intend to engage in more. Perhaps so many
advantages for translating the Bible into all the languages

1 The "greatest master of ridicule since Swift" knew more about India and
about missionaries and the need of them, when he wrote thirty years later : " Read
Modern India by Dr Spry. What do you think of a native living up trees, and
eating human flesh? — and, though they eat it raw, they are called Cookies. Bring
the image before your eyes, and figure to yourself a Cookie sitting up in your large
tree and eating the parson of the parish. It is scarcely credible — and yet this happens
150 miles from Calcutta." — Reid, The Life and Times of Sydney Smith, p. 309.

268 IN THE EAST (i.) [l8o4.

of the East will never meet in any one situation again, viz.
a possibility of obtaining natives of all the countries, a
sufficiency of worldly good things (with a moderate degree
of annual assistance from England) to carry us through it, a
printing office, a good library of critical writings, a habit of
translating, and a disposition to do it. We shall, however,
need about ;£iooo per annum for some years to enable us to
print them ; and with this it may be done in about fifteen
years, if the Lord preserve our lives and health."

For a clear understanding of this letter, and a distinct
perception of the relative positions of the "Five Chaplains"
and the Serampore brethren, we must briefly recall the
familiar story of the great Baptist missionary.

The son of a Northampton parish schoolmaster, William
Carey was born at Paulerspury on the i7th August 1761,
and was apprenticed in his boyhood to a shoemaker. Cook's
Voyages awakened his imagination to a keen interest in the
lands and isles of the heathen ; the preaching of Thomas
Scott, the Commentator,1 quickened his feet in the paths of
godly living. He joined the Baptists, gave them such
youthful service as he was able in their ministrations, and
in his twentieth year was baptized in the River Nen by
Dr Ryland, president of the Baptist College at Bristol.
Toiling at his Latin and Greek, Hebrew and Dutch, earning
a precarious livelihood by shoemaking and teaching, he
successively held charges at Earl's Barton, Moulton, and
Leicester ; but in his attempt to realise the grand dream of
his life — the spread of Gospel light among the nations
which sat in the shadow of death — he met with little help
or heartening. "Sit down, young man," interposed the
chairman of a ministers' meeting in 1786; "when it pleases
God to convert the heathen, He'll do it without your help,

1 Even the most careless reader cannot fail to be struck by the continual
appearance of three honoured names — John Newton, Thomas Scott, Charles
Simeon — in the accounts of the great undertakings and in the sketches of the
great religious workers of the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the
nineteenth century.

,8i7] CAREY AT SERAMPORE 269

or mine." An impatient and unwise rebuke, which happily
did not quench the young preacher's zeal and trust.

Six years later, in the face of numberless difficulties and
discouragements, the Baptist Missionary Society was
founded, and Carey was ready to set out on his quest for
the sheep in the wilderness. He sailed without a licence
on one of the Company's ships, but an information against
the captain was threatened, and the "doubly dangerous
man, without a covenant and with a Bible,"1 was landed
in the Channel. He obtained a passage on a Danish vessel,
and on the nth November 1793 reached Bengal, with his
wife — for he had married early and not happily — her sister,
and four or five children. How, in his friendless poverty
in a strange country, he endured the reproaches of sister-in-
law and wife ; how he built a hut and maintained life with
his gun in the feverish, tiger-haunted jungle ; how that com-
passionate Christian, Mr Udny, put him in charge of an
indigo factory at Malda ; how for five years he devoted
himself to his factory work, to linguistic studies, to preaching
to the natives and schooling their children, to the translation
of the Gospel into Bengali, will readily be remembered.

In 1799 four colleagues arrived in the Hooghly on
board an American ship. Though to them Bengal was
forbidden land, up the river the Danish flag flew over
the free territory of Serampore ; - Governor Bie was not a
man to be brow-beaten even by Lord Wellesley, and that
bold and masterful proconsul decided not to interfere. With
much reluctance Carey transported his family,3 type, and
printing press to the settlement, and in 1800 the Baptist
Mission settled down to its labours. One of the four
colleagues had already succumbed to the climate ; a second

1 Kaye, Christianity in India, p. 223.

- In 1845 all the Danish possessions in India — Tranquebar, Serampore
(Fredericksnagar), and a tract of ground at Balasore — were transferred to the East
India Company for .£125,000.

3 Mrs Carey, to hint briefly at a sad story, did not long survive the removal
to Serampore, and in due time her husband made a more suitable marriage.

270 IN THE EAST (i.) [l8o4-

died shortly afterwards. Of the two who were left, William
Ward, the son of a carpenter and builder at Derby, had
become acquainted with Carey in the days when the Mission
seemed an impossible dream. From a printer he rose to
the position of newspaper editor, and in 1796 he turned
his thoughts to the service of Christ, was baptized, and
volunteered to assist Carey in the printing of the Scriptures.

The other, Joshua Marshman, the son of a pious Baptist
weaver, was born at Westbury Leigh, in Wiltshire, on the
2Oth April 1768. After some experience in the employ of
a London bookseller, he took to his father's trade, acquired
a stock of rare and useful knowledge during the years he
spent at the loom, married the daughter of a minister of
his own communion, and was raised into a new sphere of
work by the offer of the mastership of a school at Broadmead,
near Bristol. The ancient city of ships was indeed a
" pleasant place" (Brightstowe) to him. Here he enjoyed
the privilege of maturing at the Baptist College his
acquaintance with the classical languages and Hebrew ; and
here, in his intercourse with Dr Ryland, he resolved to
dedicate himself to the great missionary enterprise in the
East.

In the College compound at Serampore may still be
seen the bungalow under whose roof these apostolic men
"lived in utter unselfishness, as one great Christian
family."1 In the old Danish church three tablets still record
the brief outline of their existence. But at the time of which
we write all were on the morning side of forty — full of
energy and hope, eager for the study, the translating,
printing, preaching, with which their busy days were
filled.

And now occurred an event of great moment in the
prospects of the Mission. On the 4th May 1800, the
"triumphant proconsul," who had prolonged our dominions

1 Kaye (p. 234), from whose pages many of these details are taken.

,8i7] THE COLLEGE OF FORT-WILLIAM 271

in a broad unbroken belt from the Himalayas to Cape
Comorin,1 established the College of Fort-William for the
education of young Englishmen in the Indian languages, and
the advancement of Western science and literature. David
Brown was appointed Provost, Claudius Buchanan, Vice-
Provost and Classical Professor. There was but one man
competent to teach Bengali. In India English Churchmen had
no repugnance to association with pious Nonconformists,
Lord Wellesley recognised merit and learning in every
guise, and accordingly David Brown secured Carey's ap-
pointment to the post, on the clear understanding that
his acceptance should not preclude him from pursuing his
missionary labours. The College included a department
for Biblical translation, and as early as 1805 a beginning
was made in five languages — Persian and Hindustani,
Western Malay, Oriya, and Mahratta (Marathi).

Two distinct presses and companies of translators had
therefore been for some time at work when the proposals of
the Bible Society for the formation of a Corresponding Com-
mittee were answered by the Provost of Fort-William.

It is desirable, however, that we should at once form a
closer acquaintance with the personality of these dis-
tinguished Churchmen.

There is an air of romance about^the boyhood of David
Brown, who was the son of a Yorkshire farmer. His bright
gifts and youthful piety won him the affection of a clergyman,
who charged himself with his education, and sent him to the
Grammar School at Hull, at that time under the direction
of Joseph Milner — preceptor, it will be remembered, of little
William Wilberforce, and elder brother of our portly and
stentorian Dean of Carlisle. About 1782 Brown went up
to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where, shortly after
having taken his degree, he was offered the chaplaincy of
the Military Orphanage at Calcutta. Early in 1785 he was

1 Lyall, The Rise of the British Dominion in India, p. 231.

272 IN THE EAST (i.) [I8o4-

ordained and married, but it was not till the close of
November that he was able to start for his destination. The
interval was one of anxiety and straitened circumstances,
but it was not without its compensations. Brown's best
credentials were his friends. At Cambridge he had enjoyed
the intimacy of Charles Simeon, then patiently enduring
the fierce antagonism and contumely of his parishioners,
and had thoughts of serving under him as curate ; now he
was in friendly intercourse with John Newton and Richard
Cecil. From each he received the offer of a curacy ; and
the prospect of being associated with the saintly Fletcher of
Madeley must assuredly have given him a moment's pause
of hesitation. But the Divine Will urged him eastwards.
Simeon travelled from Cambridge to see him sail, as twice,
many years afterwards, he was to travel when Martyn and
Thomason embarked.

On the 8th June 1786 Brown landed in Calcutta, and
assumed the duties of his post. About this time, a perfervid
young Scot, son of a schoolmaster at Cambuslang, fell in
love with a lady of a station much above his own, flung
aside his studies at Glasgow University, and set out, with
his violin, to seek in foreign climes the fortune which his
birth had denied him. It was a long quest ; through dragons'
woods, and the mountains of cruel giants, and the labyrinths
of wicked dwarfs ; and led, eleven years later, to the
hospitable roof of David Brown. After many strange ex-
periences the poor adventurer "came to himself" in London,
sorrowful and far from home. He wrote to John Newton,
whose preaching had deeply moved him, and from the pulpit
of St Mary Woolnoth the good friend of all who were in
trouble invited his anonymous correspondent to call upon
him. Newton introduced him to the beneficent Henry
Thornton ; Thornton sent him to Cambridge ; through
Charles Grant, Simeon obtained him an East India
chaplaincy, and on the icth March 1797 David Brown with

,8,7i FIRST GRANT TO INDIA 273

both hands welcomed Claudius Buchanan to Calcutta. Two
days later Buchanan completed his thirty-first year. For
three years he was stationed at Barrackpore — burying,
marrying, baptizing, and making himself occasions for
preaching, for there was no church, no congregation, no
provision for divine service. In 1799 he took for his
wife the amiable daughter of a Suffolk clergyman, and
in 1800 received his appointment to the College of Fort-
William, the entire direction of which was placed in his
hands.

We may now resume the thread of the Bible Society's
operations. When the Committee had been made acquainted
with the great schemes of translation which were in progress,
they took for granted the formation of a Corresponding Com-
mittee, and placed at its disposal ^1000 in furtherance of the
work. The grant was opportune, for already one of these
schemes was threatened with extinction. The Court of
Directors had decided to reduce the establishment at Fort-
William to narrow limits, and to discontinue the translation
of the Scriptures and other literary work at the end of
1806. This measure would have dispersed the many native
scholars who had come from remote regions to Calcutta,
suspended the liberal patronage which had been bestowed
on all learned men who could promote the translation of
the Scriptures, and destroyed the identification with the
Church of England which had characterised the under-
taking. Anxious to avert these consequences, the heads
of the College decided to encourage the translators to
proceed with their work by such means as they could
command, and to trust to the liberality of the public at
home and throughout Hindustan for the support that would
be required. With this view they offered the hand of
fellowship to the various groups of missionaries in different
parts of India, and exerted themselves in circulating the
printed proposals for Oriental versions issued by the
VOL. i, s

274 IN THE EAST (i.) [1804-

Serampore brethren. Copies were distributed among the
chief civil and military officers from Delhi to Travancore,
and in a little while ^1600 was contributed to the
Translation Fund.

A regular intercourse now began between the Bible
Society and the friends at Calcutta. Early in 1807 the
Committee received from Mr Brown "proofs" of the versions
in progress at Serampore, viz. a Bengali Bible and Gospels
in Sanskrit, Mahratta, and Oriya, and manuscript speci-
mens of translations into Telinga (Telugu), Sanskrit, Hindu-
stani, Delhi-Hindustani, Gujarati, Persian, and Chinese.1 A
second grant of ;£iooo was voted by the Committee ; a
considerable number of English Bibles and Testaments
was despatched to Mr Brown for the Army, Navy, and
other Europeans, and a small consignment was ordered to
be sent from Halle to the German missionaries. These
supplies proved most seasonable, for several chaplains had
spent large sums in providing Scriptures for the use of
the soldiers and others ; and the money grants were received
with hopes re-animated and efforts renewed. The Committee
sent out a still larger supply of Bibles and Testaments —
this was in the course of 1808 — and agreed to assign ^icoo
annually for the next three years. For the work was being
diligently prosecuted ; the presses were busy ; the co-opera-
tion of earnest and qualified scholars had been secured in
remote parts of India ; the reports of the Bible Society —
"without whose fostering care this happy beginning would
not have been advanced beyond the threshold " — had been
distributed to all the stations under the Presidency, and to
Madras, Ceylon, Travancore, and Bombay. Malayalam had
been added to the list of versions in preparation ; Mr

1 In the Chinese Marshman was aided by Mr Joannes Lassar, an Armenian
Christian and a native of China, who had been employed by the Portuguese at Macao
as official correspondent with the Court at Pekin. Brown and Buchanan became person-
ally responsible for his salary of ^450 per annum, and on Mr Marshman and two of
his sons and a son of Dr Carey agreeing to engage in the study of Chinese, he was
sent to reside at Serampore,

i8i7l HENRY MARTYN 275

Brown and his colleagues were looking forward to versions in
Burmese, Sinhalese, and Arabic ; and at Dinapore, with the
assistance of his coadjutors, Sabat from Arabia and Mirza
Fitrut from Lucknow, Henry Martyn was absorbed in the
principal labour of his short life.

Yes, twenty years had gone by, and Simeon, who had
wished David Brown God-speed, had afterwards performed
the same friendly office for Henry Martyn. In the early
May of 1806, as the Company's fleet bore up to the mouth
of the Hooghly, Martyn passed within sight of the vessel
which was bearing away Buchanan, with shattered health
and a heart heavy with the death of his wife, on his
tour of inspection among the Syrian Churches in the
south.

Brief must be our sketch of the short, brilliant, and
tragic career of this "first great missionary of the English
Church since Boniface." Martyn was the son of a captain in
one of the Cornish mines, and was born at Truro on the
1 8th February 1781. He had not yet completed his
twentieth year when he obtained the proud position of
Senior Wrangler at Cambridge, and soon afterwards he
carried off the first Smith's Prize. "I had obtained my
highest wishes, but was surprised to find I had grasped
a shadow." In March 1802 he obtained his fellowship at
St John's, "which would have enabled him, had he so
willed, to combine the position of a priest with ease and
comfort ; but in the October term he chanced to hear
Simeon speak of the good done by a single missionary,
William Carey, in India."1 Before the end of the year
he had offered himself, "quite willing to go anywhere,
or surfer anything, for God." In October 1803 he was
ordained deacon, and in addition to his tutorial work at

The Church Qiiarterly, "Henry Martyn," October 1881, p. 35, from which
chiefly this outline is taken.

276 IN THE EAST (i.) [,8o4-

the University, l began to act as Simeon's curate at Holy
Trinity. It was finally settled that he should go out to
India as a chaplain, a position in which, it was thought,
he would do most good, even for the cause of Missions ;
and in April 1805, having taken his B.D., he was ap-
pointed. Simeon accompanied him to Portsmouth, and
the two friends parted for ever on the iyth July, a day
which the congregation at Holy Trinity devoted to fasting
and prayer for his welfare.

Of another parting but few words need be written. On
the igth the fleet was driven in to Falmouth, and in an
agony of love and grief Martyn found himself once more at
Marazion by the side of the half-hearted betrothed, whom
many obstacles prevented from accompanying him. He
galloped back to Falmouth barely in time to catch his
ship, and then — strange irony of life — "the fleet beat about
for days in Mount's Bay, within view of St Hilary's spire,
and the beach where he had walked with Lydia." The
lovers never saw each other again. "From the day on
which he gazed for the last time, with swimming eyes, on
the dim outline of St Michael's Mount and St Hilary's
spire, to that hour when he sat in the Armenian orchard,
and thought with sweet comfort of God, in solitude his
company, his friend and his comforter, his life was one
long season of self-sacrifice — of self-sacrifice mighty in the
struggle between the strength of his earthly affections and
the intensity of his yearnings after the pure spiritual
state."2

A few weeks after his landing in Bengal, he was joined
by Daniel Corrie, who, as the years went by, became the
first Bishop of Madras; and in 1809, the dear "fellow-
disciple in the great Simeonite school," Thomas Thomason,
reached Calcutta in time to take the place of Dr Buchanan

1 In the last months of his tutorial engagement the ill-starred young poet, Henry
Kirke White, was one of his pupils.

2 Kaye, Christianity in India, p. 188,

i8i7] THE BENGAL COMMITTEE AT WORK 277

(who had returned home) on the Corresponding Committee,
which was now at last definitely organised, with Mr Brown
as secretary.

At the first meeting of this Auxiliary — for whatever its
name, it was in fact an Auxiliary — it was determined that
arrangements should be made for carrying forward approved
translations in Arabic, Persian, Hindustani, and Telugu,
independent of those in the hands of the Serampore mission-
aries ; and correspondence was opened with Tranquebar,
Tanjore, Bombay, Cochin, and Ceylon. From the mission-
aries in the south it was ascertained that there was the greatest
need of Tamil Bibles. There were nearly 12,000 native
Protestants belonging to the Tanjore Mission alone, in-
cluding the Tinnevelly district, and with the exception of
the native teachers, none had an Old Testament, and not
one in two or three hundred had even the New. The
Scriptures in Portuguese would also be a blessing, not
only to the Portuguese Protestants, but to many Roman
Catholics, priests and laymen, in all the chief places from
Madras round to Goa and Bombay. For the first time a
deep interest seems to have been awakened among the
Europeans in Calcutta. On New Year's Day, 1810, Mr
Brown preached a sermon in the Old Church, in which he
urged the petition of the Hindus for the Bible. A plain
statement of the facts sufficed to open the hearts of the
public. A subscription was immediately set on foot ;
Lieut.-General Hewitt, Commander -in -Chief, headed the
list with ^250 ; in a few days the principal Government
officers and the leading inhabitants raised the amount
to ;£iooo; and the Rev. Mr Kohloff, Schwartz's friend
and successor at Tanjore, was instructed to buy up all
copies of the Tamil Scriptures for distribution at a
small price among the natives, and to have a new
edition printed without delay. A small supply of Bibles
and Testaments in Portuguese was also purchased

278 IN THE EAST (i.) [l8o4-

and sent down for distribution ; and when the news
of these movements reached England, the London Com-
mittee despatched to Madras a printing press and a
fount of Tamil type, together with a large quantity
of paper, to supplement the inadequate resources of the
missionaries.

The Corresponding Committee now turned attention
to the establishment, under the auspices of the Bible
Society, of a Bibliotheca Biblica, consisting of a Bible
depot and a library for the use of the translators. The
need for the repository may be conjectured from the fact
that not a copy of the Scriptures in the original, not a
Bible in French, was obtainable in the wealthy city which
was crowded yearly with traders from all quarters, -
Armenians, Greeks, Arabians and Jews, Turks and
Malays. To both departments of this admirable institu-
tion the Bible Society gave its hearty co-operation ; and
consignments of versions in a number of languages for
sale at moderate prices, as well as valuable books of
reference, were shipped to Calcutta.

In the meanwhile the work of translation was proceed-
ing with great spirit, energy, and scholarly accuracy ; Sikh
and Kanarese had been added to the list ; and the Corre-
sponding Committee had accepted the rare offer made by
Dr Leyden, Professor in the College of Fort-William, who,
with the assistance of the learned natives in his employ,
was in a position to furnish the Gospels in seven Oriental
tongues -- Siamese, Macassar and Bugis (the original
languages of Celebes, still spoken in the vast island of
Borneo, and understood generally in the Malay Archi-
pelago), Afghan, Jaghatai (the original Turkoman speech,
still in use in Central Asia), Maldivian and Rakheng (the
language of the Aracanese, the ancient stock from which
the Burmans had sprung).

These encouraging developments gave great satisfaction

i8i;J THE MALAYALAM NEW TESTAMENT 279

to the Society at home. The annual grant of ^1000
was doubled and guaranteed for three years, and several
hundred reams of paper were forwarded to Bombay for
the printing of the Malayalam New Testament, which
was one of the fruits of Dr Buchanan's tour. He had
met Mar Dionysius, the Metropolitan of the Syrian Church,
an aged man of majestic aspect, clad in dark red silk,
with a large golden cross hanging from his neck, and
his venerable beard reaching below his girdle. "Such
was the appearance of Chrysostom in the fourth century."
In response to Buchanan's wishes that the Scriptures should
be translated and printed, "I have already considered the
subject," said the prelate, "and have determined to super-
intend the work myself, and to call the most learned of
my clergy to my aid. It is a work which will illuminate
these dark regions, and God will give it His blessing."
In the course of his second visit Buchanan had received the
complete MS. of the New Testament and taken it with him
to Bombay where there were special facilities for printing it,
and whither natives went from Travancore to superintend
the press.

Malayala included Travancore, Cochin, and Malabar —
the mountains, and all the region within them, from Cape
Comorin to Cape Illi. At the time of Buchanan's journeys
there were fifty-five Syrian Churches, representing that ancient
Christianity which at the close of the fifteenth century Vasco
da Gama discovered in its pristine simplicity — without
celibacy, without Purgatory, without images, without the
invocation of saints, and with the two sacraments of Baptism
and the Lord's Supper, — and which, with axe and rack and
faggot, the Inquisition strove to reduce to the Papal
obedience. Syriac was still the language of their liturgy,
but the Malayalam was the vernacular tongue ; and there
were 200,000 Christians for whom the version of Mar
Dionysius was expected to be available, as the Roman

280 IN THE EAST (i.) [1804-

Catholic Vicar-Apostolic at Verapoli had consented to its
circulation in the district under his control.1

On New Year's Day 1811 another appeal was made
to the philanthropy of Anglo-Indian Christians. But it was
not merely on behalf of the native Christians of the south.
Henry Martyn pleaded for the Portuguese, Tamil, Malayalam,
Sinhalese Christians — some 900,000 people — who were in
want of the Word of Life. He did not remain long enough
in Calcutta to see the results of his intercession. Stricken
with consumption, and wasted to a shadow, but with an
unquenchable light in his soul, he sailed six days later for
Bombay for the benefit of the sea-air. His immediate
destination was Shiraz, where he hoped to accomplish in
Persian a pure and worthy translation of the New
Testament.2

On the 2ist February the Calcutta Auxiliary Bible
Society was founded. Mr Brown, the secretary of the
Corresponding Committee, was appointed secretary to the
new institution ; and to obviate any confusion or overlapping
of functions, the object of the Auxiliary was defined as
primarily the realisation of Mr Martyn's appeal — the supply
of the Scriptures to the Christians in India. The news of
this auspicious event was received with pleasure by the
parent Society. It was gratified with the activity of the
new Auxiliary, which had purchased for distribution 800
New Testaments in Tamil from Tranquebar, 2000 Portuguese
Bibles, and 5000 Testaments, and had contracted with

1 " I do not know what you might do, under the protection of a British force,"
said this worthy ecclesiastic, when Buchanan asked if he might with safety
visit the Inquisition at Goa, "but I should not like (smiling and pressing his
capacious sides) to trust my body in their hands " ; and Buchanan's subsequent
experience seems to justify this discretion. — Buchanan, Christian Researches, p. 69.

2 A Persian version of the four Gospels is said to have been made for the
Emperor Akbar (1556-1605) by the Jesuit fathers from Goa more than two centuries
before. One would like to believe that Christianity is referred to in the inscription
on the simple grave of Jehanhira, the devoted daughter of Shah Jehan and the
Queen who sleeps beneath the Taj Mahal, and great-granddaughter of Akbar:
" Let no rich canopy cover my grave. This grass is the best covering for the tombs
of the poor in spirit. The humble, the transitory Jehanhira ; the disciple of the
holy men of Chist [Christ ?] ; the daughter of the Emperor Shah Jehan."

i8i7] THE CALCUTTA AUXILIARY 281

Serampore for 5000 Testaments in Tamil, Sinhalese, and
Malayalam respectively ; and deeply impressed by a state-
ment in a letter from the Auxiliary that " it would be the
work of years to supply the demand among Indian
Christians," the London Committee determined to aid with
a grant of Bibles, Testaments, and printing-paper to the
value of ,£1000.

CHAPTER XV

IN THE EAST (ll.)

THE work of the Bible Society in the East was now being
carried on by three distinct and powerful coadjutors — the
Corresponding Committee, the Serampore brethren, and
the Calcutta Auxiliary. In these circumstances their pledge
of continued encouragement and support prompted the
Committee at home to increase the grant for the year to
the Corresponding Committee from ^2000 to ^4000. A
great amount of excellent work had been done.

By August 1811 the missionaries had printed and
circulated the New Testament in Sanskrit,1 Bengali, Oriya,
Hindi, and Mahratta ; versions in Sikh, Telinga (Telugu),
and Karnata were in the press ; they were engaged in
translations into Burmese, Maghuda (Pali) and Kashmiri ;
in Chinese the first two Gospels had been printed, St Luke
and St John were at press, the rest of the New Testament
and the Pentateuch to the fourth chapter of Numbers had
been translated. The Old Testament in Bengali was being
distributed, and in seven other languages considerable
progress had been made both in translating and printing.

The report of the Corresponding Committee stated that
they themselves had in the press 1000 copies of the New
Testament translated into Hindustani by Mirza Fitrut
(Mohammed Ali) under the supervision of Mr Martyn ; 1000
of the four Gospels in Persian by the Rev. L. Sebastiani,

1 " Even at the present day an educated Brahman would write with greater fluency
in Sanskrit than in Bengali. It was the classical, and at the same time the sacred,
language." — Max M tiller, The Science of Language, vol. i. p. 162.
282

1804-1817] JOHN LEYDEN'S VERSIONS 283

who had been long resident at the Court of Persia ; and a
similar number of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke,
in Telinga, the work of the high-caste Brahmin, Ananda
Ayer, under the superintendence of the late Rev.
Augustus Desgranges of the London Missionary Society.
Sabat had completed the New Testament and the Book
of Genesis in Arabic,1 and they had received from Dr
Leyden versions of nine Gospels in the languages which
he had taken for his province. These were all they were
ever to receive from that remarkable genius. He had
died suddenly in August 1811, at the early age of thirty-
six, in the Island of Java, immediately after the landing
of our forces near Batavia.2 Few at the first glance will
recognise in him the John Leyden whom Richard Heber
(the elder brother of Bishop Reginald) made known to
Walter Scott ; who assisted in the compilation of the
Border Minstrelsy ; whose name Scott has embalmed in
his verse, and who was himself a poet of no mean accom-
plishment. " Born in a shepherd's cottage in one of the
wildest valleys of Roxburghshire, and of course almost
entirely self-educated, he had, before he attained his
nineteenth year, confounded the Doctors of Edinburgh
by the portentous mass of his acquisitions in almost every
department of learning. He had set the extremest penury
at utter defiance, for bread and water, and access to books
and lectures, comprised all within the bounds of his
wishes ; and thus he toiled and battled at the gates of
science after science, until his unconquerable perseverance
carried everything before it."3 In 1802 he obtained the
promise of some literary employment in the East India

1 In 1809 the Society voted ^250 in aid of an Arabic Bible which was being pro-
duced under the patronage of the Bishop of Durham (the Hon. Shute Barrington) ;
five years later an unused balance of .£173 and 100 copies of the work were presented
to the Society.

2 Another reverberation of the Napoleonic troubles in Europe. Batavia was
restored to the Dutch in 1814.

3 Lockhart, Life of Scott, vol. i. p. 119.

284 IN THE EAST (n.) tl8o4.

Company's service, but at the last moment the only post
available was that of surgeon assistant. But if he
accepted this he must qualify himself in the brief interval
before sailing. One of those undaunted spirits who can
compass in three or four months what takes ordinary men
as many years, he obtained his degree in the beginning
of 1803, having just before published his beautiful poem,
The Scenes of Infancy; sailed to India; raised for himself
within seven years a reputation as the most marvellous
of Orientalists ; passed to higher and yet higher positions ;
"and died, in the midst of the proudest hopes, at the
same age with Burns and Byron."

His work was not suffered to fall to the ground.
Carey and Marshman were successful in securing the
assistance of men learned in the Pashtu, or Afghan, the
speech of that nation which Sir William Jones and others
conjectured — and not without probability, it was believed
— to be the descendants of the Ten Tribes carried into
captivity by Shalmanezer, who "placed them in Halah,
and in Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of
the Medes."1 The report of May 1814 showed that this
Afghan version had been carried forward as far as the
Epistle to the Romans, and that Leyden's old assistants
were continuing his work in the languages of Beluchistan
and the Maldive Islands.

Other heavy losses marked the progress of 1812. On
the nth March a disastrous fire burned down the printing
office at Serampore, consuming ^3000 worth of English
paper, nearly half of which had been intended for the
Scriptures that were to be printed for the Corresponding
Committee and the Calcutta Auxiliary. The entire loss,
which was estimated at ;£ 10,000, was promptly made good
by the liberality of various religious societies and the

1 See Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, sub voc. "Halah," "Habor," "Gozan.'
It lends no colour of course to this conjecture.

1817] DEATH OF DAVID BROWN 285

Christian public ; and the Bible Society replaced the entire
quantity of paper which had been destroyed. Happily
little delay was caused by this accident, and the brethren,
cheered by the sympathy and assistance which had been
extended to them, were enabled to proceed with their
arduous undertakings.

On the i4th June the beloved secretary, David Brown,
passed to his home eternal in the heavens. He had long
been in declining health, and was on a voyage to Madras
when the ship struck on a shoal off Saugor Island.1 The
poor sufferer was taken back to Calcutta, where on the day
of rest, a fortnight later, he breathed his last. During
twenty-six years of unbroken service his one holiday was a
short trip up the Ganges. " In the religious progress of the
European community he found his reward. He lived to see
the streets opposite to our churches blocked up with carriages
and palanquins, and to welcome hundreds of communicants
to the Supper of the Lord. He lived to see the doctrines of
his Master openly acknowledged in word and deed, where
once they had been scouted by the one and violated by the
other."1 Thomas Thomason succeeded him as secretary of
the Calcutta Auxiliary and of the Corresponding Committee.

In October, as we have seen, Henry Martyn was buried
by the Armenians of Tokat, "with the honours due to an
archbishop."

Yet the year brought its blessings and its compensations.
On the ist of August, thanks mainly to the zealous offices
of Sir Alexander Johnston, Chief-Justice of Ceylon, the
Colombo Auxiliary Bible Society was formed, with Governor
Maitland as president, all the members of the Council in
the island as vice-presidents, and most of the principal

1 It was at Saugor that at the great annual festival, when the sun enters Capricorn,
early in January, cocoa-nuts, fruit, flowers, and gems were offered to the sea, and
little children were thrown to the crocodiles. Hundreds of thousands of innocent
beings must have been sacrificed in this way. On a report drawn up by William
Carey the abominable rite was suppressed by Lord Wellesley.

2 Kaye, Christianity in India, p. 165.

286 IN THE EAST (n.) [l8o4-

Crown officials as subscribers. Three years previously, the
fact that there was in Ceylon a native population of a million
and a half subject to the British Government had engaged
the attention of the London Committee ; and it had been a
question whether they should supply the Tamil and
Sinhalese Scriptures from home, or improve the means of
printing in the island, where already the New Testament
and a portion of the Old had been translated into Sinhalese
at the expense of the Government. They had the advantage
of the advice of Sir Alexander during a visit to England,
and on his return to Ceylon he conveyed with him a
large assortment of English, Dutch, and Portuguese Bibles
and Testaments, and several hundred reams of paper for
the printing of Scriptures for the natives. The Calcutta
Auxiliary had also extended its operations to the island ; and
now both Auxiliaries, either independently or in concert,
proceeded with measures for the extension of the Gospel.
Mr W. Tolfrey, a distinguished Sinhalese scholar, besides
undertaking a Pali version of the New Testament with the
aid of two Buddhist priests, set about preparing another
Sinhalese translation, as the old one was found to be very
faulty; and on his death, in January 1817, the work was
continued by the missionaries, Mr Chater and Mr Clough,
assisted by Mr Armour, an accomplished schoolmaster.

On the 1 3th June 1813 an Auxiliary was formed at
Bombay under the auspices of the Governor, Sir Evan
Nepean, who was a Vice-President of the Bible Society.
Thus three towers of light raised their beacons over the vast
triangle of Hindustan.

That a great change had already taken place in Anglo-
Indian life we have already seen. There was now evidence
that, so far from the Hindu and Mohammedan being beyond
the possibility of conversion, the printed Book became in
their hands the most convincing of preachers. Several
Brahmins and persons of high caste, not many miles from

,817] ARMENIAN AND MALAY VERSIONS 287

Serampore, "obtained the knowledge of the truth," wrote
Dr Carey, "and met for Christian worship on the Lord's
Day, before they had any intercourse with missionaries,
simply by reading the Scriptures. These were soon after
baptized, and reported that, by the same means, as many as a
hundred of their neighbours were convinced of the truth of
the Christian religion, and were kept back from professing
it only by fear of losing caste, and its consequences."

Meanwhile Carey and his colleagues had been enlarging
the place of their tent.1 Versions were in progress in Bruj-
Bhassa spoken in the upper provinces of Hindustan, Gujarati,
and Assamese ; the whole of the New Testament in Chinese
had for some time been published, and more than half of
the Old had been translated.

In 1814 the Calcutta Auxiliary engaged in two under-
takings which projected its influence far beyond the con-
fines of India — the printing of the Bible in Armenian and in
Malay. The extreme rarity and dearness of the Armenian
Bible, which was seldom to be had except at the sale of
some dead man's effects, and then fetched from 60 to 120
rupees, was brought to its notice by one of its members, Mr
Johannes Sarkies, an Armenian by birth, who offered, on the
part of his countrymen and himself, a donation of 5000
rupees in aid of a cheap edition. The Armenians had
churches at Calcutta, Chinsurah, Dacca, and Saidabad ; they
were found in groups scattered over the towns in the interior ;
had settled in Madras, Bombay, Surat, Baghdad, Bushire,
and Muscat, and "were the general merchants of the East,
in constant motion from Canton to Constantinople."2 Their
Bible, which had been excellently printed at the Armenian
convent among the lagunes of Venice, derived from an original

1 "Enlarge the place of thy tent" (Isa. liv. 2, 3) with its applications, "Expect
great things from God," "Attempt great things for God," had been the text of
Carey's memorable sermon at Nottingham on the 3Oth May 1792. — Stock, History
of the Church Missionary Society, vol. i. p. 60,

- JJuchanan, Researches, p. 136.

288 IN THE EAST (n.) [1804

which had been translated in the year 460, when men who
had known St Jerome were still alive !

The printing of the Malay Scriptures, which had been
suggested by Mr George Livett, the British Resident at
Amboyna, one of the Spice Islands of the Molucca group,
drew the attention of the public to a region in the very heart
of paganism, in which there was a Christian population
numbering 20,000. When the kingdom of Holland was
annexed by Napoleon on the abdication of his brother
Louis in 1810, the Oriental possessions which the Dutch
had acquired in the seventeenth century became French
colonies. In the same year the British seized Amboyna, and
on the capture of Batavia in 1811 the power of France in the
East was annihilated. To the surprise of the Calcutta officials
sent out to administer the archipelago, it was discovered that,
in notable contrast with the rulers of India, the Dutch had
spread the light of the Gospel in the territories they had
conquered. In the Moluccas every village of any considera-
tion had its church and pastor, or its school and teacher.
As far back as the opening years of the seventeenth century
the Gospel of St Matthew had been rendered into Malay.
Passing to later times, a translation of the whole Bible,
undertaken at the expense of the Dutch East India Company,
was begun by Dr Melchior Leidekker, continued by Dr
Petrus Van der Vorm, and revised by a commission of four
Dutch ministers. It left the press in 1733, and copies were
now extremely scarce. Among 10,000 native Christians in
the Saigor Islands only two complete Bibles and a few
Testaments were found ; and in 1816, at a sale, a perfect
Bible brought ;£io.

Of this version the Calcutta Auxiliary reproduced, in
Roman characters, 3000 copies of the New Testament ;
towards the expense of which the Governor-General in
Council contributed 10,000 sicca rupees. Subsequently, at
the request of the Amboyna Auxiliary — established on the

i8i7] SABAT THE ARABIAN 289

5th June 1815 — an impression of 5000 Bibles and 5000
Testaments was undertaken at Calcutta. To a large pro-
portion of the islanders, however, the Roman type was
unknown ; and the Netherlands Society projected an edition
in Arabic characters, for a large part of which the British
and Foreign Society subscribed.

In the meanwhile provision had been made for the Low
Malay, a dialect as different from that of Amboyna as High
is from Low German. On the 4th June 1814, the Java
Auxiliary was formed at Batavia, under the patronage of Sir
T. Stamford Raffles, with the special object of preparing a
version of the New Testament in Low Malay. On the
appearance of this new coadjutor the whole subject of Malay
versions was discussed between the Auxiliaries at Calcutta
and Batavia, and a course of friendly co-operation was
arranged. Shortly afterwards, however, on the restoration
of Java to the Dutch through the operation of the Treaty
of Paris, the Auxiliary at Batavia was transferred to the
Netherlands Bible Society.

The Oriental translations under the control of the
Calcutta Corresponding Committee had in the meanwhile
been greatly retarded. Though an MS. of Martyn's
Persian New Testament had reached St Petersburg months
before, no copy had yet arrived from Shiraz ; and Sabat
had seceded in the midst of his revision of the Arabic
version. After a long absence he returned to the Corre-
sponding Committee's service late in 1813, and in the
following autumn, the work having been completed, he
was discharged at his own wish.

Few pages in biography are more tragic, more pitiful,
more startling, than those which describe the career of Sabat,
"the first Arabic scholar of the age," and the son of a noble
family who traced their lineage to Mohammed. In early
manhood he and his friend Abdullah travelled through Persia
and Afghanistan. They parted at Cabul, where Abdullah was
VOL. I. T

290 IN THE EAST (n.) LlSo4-

appointed to an office of state. By a simple reading of the
Bible this young Arab was converted from Islam, and knowing
that death was the penalty of such a change of faith, he
determined to flee in disguise to one of the Christian Churches
near the Caspian. In the streets of Bokhara he was
recognised by Sabat, who had heard of his conversion and
flight, and who ruthlessly betrayed him to the king, Murad
Shah. He was offered his life if he would abjure Christ.
On his refusal one of his hands was severed at the wrist. To
a second offer he made no answer, but looked with streaming
eyes steadfastly up to heaven, like Stephen the first martyr.
"He did not look with anger at me," said Sabat. "He
looked at me, but it was benignly, and with the countenance
of forgiveness. His other hand was then cut off ; but he never
changed, he never changed ! And when he bowed his head
to receive the blow of death, all Bokhara seemed to say,
What new thing is this?"

Haunted by remorse, Sabat wandered eastward, seeking
rest and finding none. In the Madras Presidency he
obtained a Government appointment as Professor of
Mohammedan Law at Vizagapatam. Apparent discrepancies
in the Koran led him to compare it with the New Testament,
with the result that he became convinced of the truth of
Christianity. Bitter persecution from the Moslems followed ;
his life was attempted by his own brother ; and he was forced
to seek refuge at Madras, where he made a public profession
of faith and was baptized. He was now recommended to
an appointment as a translator in Calcutta, and after a
while was sent on to Mr Martyn at Dinapore. His proud
temper gave much trouble both at Dinapore and Cawnpore,
but his failings were overlooked on account of his great
merits as an Arabic scholar.

So far the story has long been made familiar by Dr
Buchanan's account in The Star in the East, and one could
wish it had no sequel. On Martyn's departure for Persia,

,817] MARTYN'S PERSIAN TESTAMENT 291

Sabat was engaged in Calcutta by the Corresponding Com-
mittee ; but after a while he neglected his duties, and at last
renounced Christianity before the Mohammedan Cadi. He
embarked as a merchant for the Persian Gulf, but the
appearance of his wealth excited the cupidity of the crew, and
when the ship put in at Tellicherry he swam ashore, obtained
the protection of the English judge, and got his merchandise
landed. The judge, who had read The Star in the East,
recognised Sabat. The latter admitted his identity, but
denied the betrayal, professed repentance for his apostasy,
and so interested the judge that the latter obtained his
conditional reinstatement at Calcutta. Once more he
recanted, published Sabatean Proofs of the Truth of Islamism,
and went to Penang. While there he again professed
repentance, lamented the injury done by his book, expressed
his desire as far as possible to undo its evil effects, and his
wish once more to return to Christianity ; yet at the same
time he continued to frequent the mosque with the
Mohammedan population. But his end was approaching.
The King of Acheen, being driven from his throne by a
usurper, came to Penang to seek arms and provisions ;
Sabat offered the royal fugitive his services, which were
accepted, and accompanied him back to Acheen. There
Sabat acquired such power and influence that he was
regarded by the rebels as their greatest enemy, and being
taken prisoner, was treated with ruthless severity, and
finally was sewn up in a sack and thrown into the sea.1

In 1815 an MS. of Martyn's Persian Testament was at
last received by the Corresponding Committee and put to
press ; the Calcutta Auxiliary sent a donation of 5000 rupees
to aid the sister society at Colombo in producing the new
Sinhalese version ; and the intelligence that an Auxiliary
had been formed at Amboyna on the 5th June was accom-
panied by a remittance of ^346, which was afterwards

1 Reminiscences of Seventy Years' Life, Travel, and Adventure, vol. i. p. 2l6«.

292 IN THE EAST (n.)

increased to .£968, as the first year's contribution to the
parent Society. Branches of the Calcutta Auxiliary had also
been formed in Malacca and Penang under the patronage of
the Governor and Commandant. In Bombay a Bibliotheca
Biblica had been formed for the sale of the Scriptures in all
the available tongues of the East and West, and efforts were
being made to form a Library for the use of translators.
The Roman Catholic churches in the Island of Bombay had
been freed by the Government from the jurisdiction of the
Archbishop of Goa, whose pretensions were found to have
no legitimate basis, and whose exercise of authority had
caused general complaint. The Archbishop was distinctly
hostile to the Bible Society, but, his opposition notwithstand-
ing, there was every reason to believe that in Goa itself, the
seat of the Inquisition, "the lower orders and even the
priests would accept translations of the Scriptures."

The Serampore missionaries, who had now completed
the Bible in Oriya and printed three-fifths of it in San-
skrit, Hindi, and Mahratta, besides producing the Chinese
Pentateuch in movable type, issued in 1816 a memoir, in
which they specified twenty-eight languages, for the most
part derived from Sanskrit, and stated that, with the facilities
they possessed, 1000 copies of the New Testament might be
obtained in any one of these tongues at a cost not exceed-
ing ^500. So deeply impressed was Mr William Hey, an
eminent surgeon at Leeds, with the wide range of benefit to
be derived from this group of tongues, that he organised a
fund to defray the expense of printing the New Testament
in the twenty-six in which it had not yet appeared. He
became convinced, however, that the object would be better
attained through the Bible Society, and with the consent of
the subscribers he transferred the amount raised to its Com-
mittee. It was arranged that £500 should be awarded for
looo copies of every approved translation of the New Testa-
ment into any Indian language not yet provided with a

1817] GRANTS TO INDIA 293

version. The first ^1500 of the fund was awarded to the
brethren at Serampore for translations into Konkani, Pashtu
(Afghan), and Telinga (Telugu), over which they had been
busied for six, eight, and fourteen years respectively.

Such is the brief outline of the early phases of Christianity
under British rule in India. In 1813 the exclusive powers
of the East India Company were abolished ; a Bill emancipat-
ing the Gospel and creating an Indian Bishopric received
the royal assent on the 2ist July, and took effect in the
following April ; and in 1814 Thomas Fanshawe Middleton,
the first Indian Bishop, was consecrated at Lambeth on the
8th May, and landed in Calcutta on the 28th November.
The sketch may fitly close with the following synopsis of the
relations of the Bible Society with its Auxiliaries in the East.

MONEY AND OTHER GRANTS VOTED BY THE
BIBLE SOCIETY, 1807-17.

To the Corresponding Committee, Calcutta, (in aid of
Oriental translations, including cost of 2000 reams

of paper, and a loan of £1200) £33,885

Do. (in aid of the Bibliotheca Biblica) . . . 366

To Bombay (for paper for the Malayalam New Testa-
ment) 873

To Madras (for printing press and type for Tamil Scrip-
tures, at Tanjore) 245

To Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society .... 1,500

To Bombay Auxiliary Bible Society 1,000

£37,869

Bibles. Testaments. Value.

Scriptures in English, Dutch, Portuguese,
etc., for distribution —

(chiefly through Calcutta) . 7,738 10,790 £3,514
(to Tranquebar) . . . 200 450 160
(to Madras) Syrian New Testa-
ments 45o-v

(to Madras) Syrian Portions . ... loo/ ^4

4,020

Carryforward . . 7,938 11,790 £4,020 ^41, J

294 IN THE EAST (n.) [1804-

Bibles. Testaments. Value.

Brought forward . 7,938 11,790 ,£4,020 .£41,889
Ceylon — Colombo Auxiliary Society (in-
cluding type, paper, and cost of

binding) ... 1,744

Scriptures in European languages . 854 1,780 638

2,382

Java Auxiliary Bible Society ... ,£500

Paper for Low Malay Version ... 650

800 1,500 500

Arabic Bibles 50 ... 56

— 1,706
Malacca 115 274 ,£100 100

9,757 i5>344 ,£46,077

The following table shows the subscriptions sent to the
Bible Society, by the Auxiliaries from the date of their
foundation down to 1816-17 : —

EASTERN AUXILIARIES.

Date of Formation. Subscriptions.

1811 (February 2 ist) Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society . ,£500

Branches — Malacca (1815).

Penang (Prince of Wales
Island) (i2th June 1815).

1812 (August ist) . Colombo (Ceylon) Auxiliary Bible

Society

1813 (June I3th) . ^Bombay Auxiliary Bible Society . 682

1814 (June 4th) . Java Auxiliary Bible Society

1815 (June 5th) . Amboyna Auxiliary Bible Society . 968

TOTAL . ,£2,150

In the interval between its formation in 1811 and the
close of this period the Calcutta Auxiliary accomplished
the work indicated in the following table : —

Bibles. Testaments.

In Circulation (from Europe) English . . 2,000 2,000

Do. do. . Portuguese . . ... 3,ooo

Printed and Distributed . Tamil . . . ... 5,000

Carry forward . . 2,000 10,000

i8i7]

THE SYRIAC NEW TESTAMENT

295

Printed and Distributed
Do. do.

In Stock

In the Press .

Do. ...
Undertaken .

Do. ...

Do. ...
Do.

Brought forward .

. Sinhalese

. Malay (Roman char-
acter)

. Malay (Roman char-
acter)

. Malay (Roman char-
acter)

. Armenian

. Tamil

. Hindustani (Nagri
character)

. Malay (Arabic char-
acter)

. Malay alam

Bibles.
2,000

Testaments

IO,OOO

2,OOO

2,OOO
1,000

I,OOO
2,OOO
2,OOO

1,000

!,ooo 17,000

When Claudius Buchanan returned to England many
a pleasant memory carried him back to Malayala. During
his wanderings the sound of the Syrian bells among the
hills at evening had reminded him of home ; the ancient
Syrian churches had suggested the old parish churches of
England ; the mere appearance of women among the friendly
groups that came about him had assured him that he was
in a Christian country. And all his religious sympathies
had been awakened by the story of that venerable Church
of the East which had entrusted him with one of those
precious books that had been the heirlooms of a thousand
years.1 He had promised to send them printed copies of
the New Testament, and he must have often heard with
the inner ear the words of the old white-robed priest, "They
would be worth their weight in silver. Our Church
languishes for want of the Scriptures." On the initiative
of Zachary Macaulay, the Committee decided to print a
Syriac version of the New Testament, and Dr Buchanan
engaged to see the work through the press as a labour of

1 This complete copy of the Syriac Bible and other trouvailles were deposited
in the University Library at Cambridge,

296 IN THE EAST (n.) [1804-

love. His last years were brightened with the joy and
consolation he derived from his task, which he did not live
to complete. In January 1815 he attended the funeral of
his early benefactor Henry Thornton, but this effort in
the inclement weather told severely on his declining
strength, and he returned home to die. A successor for
his work was found in Samuel Lee, who, as a carpenter's
apprentice at Shrewsbury, had acquired a knowledge of
the classical and Oriental languages, and had been sent to
Cambridge at the expense of the Church Missionary
Society, and who afterwards became Professor of Arabic
and Hebrew at Cambridge and Canon of Bristol.

The Syriac text has the distinction of being the oldest
version in the world after the Septuagint ; l and a special
interest is centred in the Churches which have preserved
these ancient Scriptures through centuries of oppression.
The vague geographical connotation of the word "India,"
however, and the misunderstanding of the phrase "the
Christians of St Thomas " have enveloped the begin-
nings of Christianity in Malayala in a mist of fables.
There appears to be no historic attestation whatever of the
existence of a South Indian Church in the first five centuries.2
The "India" of St Thomas lay west of the Indus; and
whether Calamina, where he suffered martyrdom, was the
modern Kerman in Eastern Persia or Calama in Gedrosia
(Beluchistan), the place of his death must be looked for in
that India west of Indus which he never left after his arrival.
The "India" of Pantasnus (end of second century) was that
of Alexander the Great, the valley of the Indus ; the " India "
of John, Bishop "of all Persia and Great India," who was
present at the Council of Nicasa (A.D. 325), lay between Persia
and the Indus; the "India" of Frumentius (early fourth

1 Possibly, it may in part be older. " Like the Septuagint, it was not the work of
one time or one hand." One tradition ascribed the beginning of it to Solomon, who
is said to have had the Scriptures translated for Hiram. — Hastings, Dictionary of
the Bible, "Versions," vol. iv. p. 849.

2 Milne Rae, The Syrian Church in India, the first eight chapters passim.

i8i7] THE HOLY EASTERN CHURCH 297

century) was Abyssinia; the " India" of Theophilus the
Indian (third quarter fourth century) was Arabia Felix. ' ' The
Syrian Church of Southern India was a direct offshoot from
the Church of Persia," which, at the date of the planting
of the South Indian Church (the beginning of the sixth
century), "was itself an integral part of the Patriarchate of
Babylon. . . . The Patriarchate was, throughout its vast
extent, Nestorian in doctrine, and in the line of direct suc-
cession from St Thomas. . . . The Church of Southern
India, therefore, which was a part of the Patriarchate, was
in the first instance Nestorian, and its members, deriving
the succession of their ecclesiastical ' orders ' from the
Apostle, called themselves, and were called by others,
'Christians of St Thomas.'"1 There is no reason to
believe that the saint himself ever was in Malayala or on
the Coromandel coast. In their isolation the Churches in
Southern India localised the legend of the Apostle, which
belonged to a region west of the Indus.

Neale presents a striking picture of the missionary
energy of the Patriarchate. The envoys of Christianity
"pitched their tents in the camps of the wandering Tartar;
the Lama of Thibet trembled at their words ; they stood in
the rice-fields of the Penjab, and taught the fishermen by
the Sea of Aral ; they struggled through the vast deserts
of Mongolia ; the memorable inscription of Singanfu attests
their victories in China ; in India the Zamorin 2 himself
respected their spiritual, and courted their temporal authority.
. . . The power of the Nestorian Patriarch culminated in
the beginning of the eleventh century" when "he had
twenty-five metropolitans, who ruled from China to the
Tigris, from the Lake Baikal to Cape Comorin."3

We cannot dwell here, however, on the story of the

1 Milne Rae, The Syrian Church in India, pp. 105, 112.

2 The Zamorin was the ruler of Calicut.

3 Neale, A History of the Holy Eastern Church, vol. i. pp. 3, 143.

298 IN THE EAST (n.) [1804-

Syrian Church, whose trials, after the Portuguese conquest,
have already been indicated. The ''memorable inscription"
to which Neale refers takes us into that remoter East in which
also the Bible Society was endeavouring to encourage the
dissemination of the Word of Life. After having lain for
nearly eight centuries in the earth, the granite tablet of
Singanfu (Si-ngan-fou, or Se-gan) was dug up at the stately
walled capital of Shen-si, between five and six hundred miles
south-west of Pekin, in I625.1 The inscription recorded that
Alopun, Olopun, orO-lo-pen (cf. Ulpian), with other mission-
aries of the Nestorian college of Nisibis, had traversed Central
Asia, "watching the azure clouds and bringing with him
the Sacred Books," had reached the capital in 635, and three
years later had obtained from Tai-tsoung a decree in favour
of the new religion, the Scriptures of which "were translated
in the imperial library."

A Syriac MS. containing a large portion of the Old
Testament and a collection of hymns was in 1725 discovered
in the possession of a Mohammedan Chinese, and is supposed
to be one of the few relics of that ancient Nestorian Church,
though it is surmised that villages and tribes of Nestorian
Christians may still survive among the mountains in the
western provinces of China. Of the Chinese translation of
O-lo-pen's sacred books, however, there is no trace ; and
although there is evidence that in later times translations
were made by the papal missionaries, none were published
or placed in the hands of the people. Indeed, so utterly
unknown was any Chinese version that the singular belief
was apparently entertained about 1800 that a translation into
Chinese was, from the very nature of the language, a literary

1 Among the treasures of the Bible House there is a set of ' ' rubbings " (presented
in 1887 by the Rev. Evan Bryant) from this celebrated stone. It is about nine feet
high, three feet two inches wide, and ten or eleven inches thick, and was erected A.D.
781, buried probably about the year 845, and unearthed in 1625 by Chinese workmen
engaged in digging the foundations of a house. In 1887 it was standing, in a row of
Buddhist tablets, in the grounds and amid the ruins of a. Buddhist temple. A drawing
of the tablet, with an account of the inscriptions, appeared in the Bible Society Monthly
Reporter for 1887, p. 184.

ROBERT MORRISON IN CHINA 299

impossibility.1 Yet at that moment a Chinese harmony of the
Gospels, which in parts was a genuine translation, existed in
the British Museum.2 A transcript of this the Rev. Robert
Morrison took with him to Canton in 1807, and he found
it of material assistance, though it gave him no little trouble,
in the preparation of his own version of the New Testament.

Morrison was born of humble parents in the neighbour-
hood of Morpeth in 1782, and, like other distinguished
scholars of his time, educated himself in strange tongues
while pursuing a trade. His was last-making.3 Dedi-
cating himself to the work of the London Missionary
Society, his first desire was to follow the steps of Mungo
Park in the dark regions of Africa ; but a higher and more
arduous undertaking was provided for him. Furnished
with letters to the American Consul at Canton, he reached
China after an eight months' voyage by way of New York
and Cape Horn. If India in those days was a forbidden
land, much more perilously so was the Empire of the
Yellow Race. No one was suffered to remain except for
purposes of trade, and natives were forbidden under
penalty of death to teach the language to a foreigner. In
spite of danger and many hardships, Morrison was in a
position two years later to accept the office of translator
to the East India Company, and that post gave him a
secure footing in China.

1 In his curiously pretentious booklet on The Origin of the First Protestant Mission
to China, the Rev. W. W. Moseley describes Sir William Jones, Mr Charles Grant,
and the Bishop of Durham as holding this opinion.

2 See ante, p. 24. To this MS., which includes a harmony of the Gospels, the
Acts, the Epistles of St Paul, and the first chapter of Hebrews, the following note is
affixed: " Evangelia Quatuor Sinice MSS. This transcript was made at Canton in
1738 and 1739, by order of Mr Hodgson, Jr. [of the East India Company], who says
that it has been collated with care and found very correct. Given by him to Sir Hans
Sloane in September 1739." It passed to the Museum with the Sloane Collection.

3 In the church books at Long Horsley, a few miles from Morpeth, there is a record
of his father coming into the district, and taking so keen an interest in the progress of
education that, though only a poor man (a clogger or maker of wooden shoes), he was
the means of getting a schoolroom built in an outlying part of the parish. (Bible Society
Monthly Reporter, October 1879.) Robert served his apprenticeship as a last-maker
in Xewcastle-on-Tyne, in a small alley, afterwards called in his honour " Morrison's
Court," leading out of the Groat Market.

300 IN THE EAST (n.) [1804-

As soon as information reached the Committee in 1812
that he was engaged in translating and printing a Chinese
version of the New Testament, they voted him a grant of
^"500 ; in the following year, on receiving his version of
St Luke, they encouraged him to pursue his labours by a
second grant of ^500 ; on hearing that the New Testament
had been completed they voted ^1000, and ^1000 was
granted in each of the two succeeding years.

Two thousand copies of this Testament passed through
the press in January 1814, and his colleague, the Rev.
William Milne, who had gone out in 1813, proceeded to
distribute them among the numerous Chinese in Java,
Malacca, and Penang, where in many cases they seem to
have produced some effect. "I often find," wrote the Rev.
J.' C. Supper from Batavia, "Chinese parents reading to
their families in the morning out of the New Testament,
and they also request instruction about some passages."
Many had turned the paper idols out of their houses, and
were in the habit of conversing about the doctrines of
Christianity.

With one of the richest Chinese in the country this
missionary had an argument on the fatherhood of God, and
the confidence His children should repose in Him. "'Are
you not a father of five sons? What would you do or think
if three of these were to paint images on paper or carve them
out of wood, and pay them all the veneration and put that
confidence in them which are justly due to you as their
father? And if they acknowledged by way of exculpation
that, from the great veneration they had for you, they could
not venture to approach you except through the intercession
of the images which they had made?' 'I should answer,'
replied the Chinese, ' I have chastised you for your want of
confidence in me ; these images, being unable to hear, see,
move, or help themselves, I pronounce you to be out of
your senses.' 'And do you act more wisely when you

THE SCRIPTURES IN CHINESE 301

worship the idols in your temples?' 'Ah! we have never
directed our views so far ; but I am convinced our idolatry
can never be pleasing to the only true God.' And he
went home seemingly dissatisfied with himself, and tore all
the painted images from the walls, and threw them into the
fire." But complete conversions were few and tardy. In May
1814, near the sea, by a spring which issued from the foot
of a high mountain, Tsas-Ako, who had helped Morrison
to print the New Testament, was the first Chinese convert
to receive baptism.

Shortly afterwards the Book of Genesis was in the press ;
and in 1816, when he was engaged to accompany the English
Ambassador, Lord Amherst, to Pekin, Morrison was trans-
lating the Book of Psalms, and his colleague, Mr Milne, at
Malacca, had nearly completed Deuteronomy. Arrange-
ments too had been made for printing large editions of the
New Testament at Malacca, where the work would not be
liable to the interruption of Chinese jealousy. " By the good
hand of God," wrote Mr Milne, "and by the aid of your
excellent Society, we have been enabled to send the sacred
volume to various parts of China, and to almost every place
where very considerable numbers of Chinese are settled ;
from Penang, through the Malay Archipelago, to the
Moluccas and Celebes on the one hand, and from Kiddah,
round the Peninsula, through the Gulf of Siam, and along
the coast of Cochin China on the other. Still the supply
is very inadequate. Many millions of these pagans have
not yet so much as heard of the Word of God." It was
nevertheless a beginning.

The thoughts both of the Bible Society and of the mission-
aries beyond Ganges had already turned to Japan, but the
season for that great field had not yet come. Strangers
were rigorously scrutinised ; expulsion followed the discovery
of any Christian book ; and the detection, during a domi-
ciliary visit, of even a scrap of paper relating to Christian

302 IN THE EAST (n.) [1804-1817

worship, was sufficient to condemn a house to destruction,
and the native occupants to death.

And now far away rise in the South Seas the jagged
pinnacles of Tahiti ; an earthly paradise, watered by a
hundred streams and half-a-dozen rivers, gorgeous with
hibiscus blossom, plentiful in trees pleasant to the eyes
and good for food — plantain and palm and bread-fruit ; no
more than a hundred and fifty miles in circumference, and
yet even to-day two-thirds of it are still shrouded in virgin
jungle. Twelve miles to the westward lies Eimeo, with
its rugged hills and broad fertile straths ; and behold the
good ship Active is heaving to, with a welcome supply of
paper, voted by the Committee in 1816 for the printing of
the Tahiti version of St Luke, in which King Pomare has
given the missionaries much help. The Rev. William
Ellis, who will one day write Polynesian Researches, has
charge of the press, and in the dearth of paper he is well
pleased at the prospect of being able to increase his edition
from 1500 to 3000 copies. In a few weeks he will see
thirty or forty canoes coming up from distant parts of
Eimeo and other islands, simply to obtain copies of Te
parau na Luka, the Word of Luke. Many will hand him
plantain leaves rolled up like a scroll — letters begging for
copies of the Gospel. All will have bamboo canes filled
with cocoa-nut oil, their current coin. They will wait
patiently for days, for weeks, while the sheets are printing.1

The "new religion" has brought an end to the re-
lentless civil wars which for generations ravaged these
islands. The days of idolatry are over. Cannibalism is
a shameful memory of the past, and the most ghastly
privilege of the royal house will survive only in a name.2

With this momentary glimpse of a fruitful mission-
field the first period of our history closes.

1 Ellis, Polynesian Researches, vol. i. p. 403.

- "The first name of Queen Pomare (Aimata, " I eat the eye ") is the last souvenir
of the royal privilege." — Nadaillac, Pre-Historic America, p. 63.

CHAPTER XVI

THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PERIOD

IT is with men as with the bees of Virgil — a little dust
stills all our stinging controversies.1 Willingly would one
overlook the charges and impeachments of a century ago,
but for these things, too, fidelity requires a small space
in our pages. And, after all, the survey is not without
gleams of humour and a certain suggestiveness.

The first direct attack on the Society was made in 1805
by " A Country Clergyman," in a letter addressed to Lord
Teignmouth, the gist of which was that the institution
was endangering the Established Church. "It is to be
expected," the writer contended, "that each member of
your heterogeneous Society will draw his portion of books
for the promotion of his particular opinion : for it is easily
seen that a Bible given away by a Papist will be pro-
ductive of Popery. The Socinian will make his Bible
speak and spread Socinianism, while the Calvinist, the
Baptist, and the Quaker will teach the opinions peculiar
to their sects. Supply these men with Bibles (I speak as
a true Churchman), and you will supply them with arms
against yourself."

In his concern lest an unanswered charge of such im-
port should produce mischievous consequences, the Bishop
of London (Dr Porteus) convened the episcopal patrons
of the Society and discussed the pamphlet, with the

" Haec certamina tanta
Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescent." — Georg. iv. 86.

303

304 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PERIOD [1804-

result that their lordships expressed themselves completely
satisfied with the conduct of the Society, and unanimously
agreed that it should continue to receive their support.
Another pamphlet appeared in the following January, in
which the Bishop of London was charged with misleading
his episcopal brethren and betraying the Church. The
writer proved to be the "Country Clergyman" under
another mask, and he had the grace to make his apology
and withdraw all the copies of his publication.

A vexatious and protracted controversy was initiated
in 1810 by persons of greater influence and higher position.
It will be remembered how the formation of the Colchester
Auxiliary l was deferred in consequence of the hostile action
of Dr Randolph, who had succeeded Dr Porteus in the
see of London. Shortly after Bishop Randolph had ex-
pressed his disapproval, the Rev. Dr Wordsworth, who
had been invited to take part in the proceedings, published
his Reasons for Declining to become a Subscriber to the British
and Foreign Bible Society. Dated from "Lambeth Palace"
by the "Domestic Chaplain of his Grace the Archbishop
of Canterbury," and published "in compliance with the
request of a much respected friend," the pamphlet wore
such an air of being inspired or authorised that Lord
Teignmouth himself undertook the defence. The sum
and substance of Dr Wordsworth's objections was that
the Bible Society withdrew from the Society for Promot-
ing Christian Knowledge the funds which would otherwise
have been contributed to its support. While Lord Teign-
mouth denied that this was the case, he contended that,
even though it were, the contributions received by the
Bible Society and devoted to the distribution of the Bible
could not have been more beneficially employed by the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge ; and he
failed to see how the interests of "piety, peace, and true

1 Chap. v. p. 68.

REPLY TO DR WORDSWORTH 305

religion " had been injured by the application. Further-
more, by circulating the Scriptures, the Bible Society
was, to the extent of that circulation, relieving the funds
of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and
enabling it to devote a larger portion of its income to
other operations.

A reply, not less genial and cogent, was issued by the
Rev. William Dealtry, examining chaplain to the Bishop
of Bristol, and a personal friend of Dr Wordsworth. A
member and zealous advocate of both societies, the Rev.
W. Ward, rector of Myland, while urging that neither
society could do the same good alone but conjointly could
do good incalculable, adduced evidence to prove that so
far from impoverishing the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, the new Society had, by the general interest
it excited in the public mind, greatly contributed to the
augmentation of its funds. The subscriptions to the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1803,
the year before the Bible Society began, amounted to
^"2119; those of 1809 reached the sum of ^"3413. The
number of Bibles, Testaments, and Psalters issued by
the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1803
was 17,779; in 1809 the number was 22, 6H.1 Turning
finally to the great object of both societies, he pointed out
that while in 1800 the issue of Scriptures and Psalters by
the old society amounted to 13,763 copies, in 1809 the
combined distribution of both societies was 99,883. These
were the issues from the respective repositories in St Paul's
Churchyard and Fleet Street only ; the work of the
Auxiliaries in Ireland and Scotland, on the Continent, and
in America was not included.

At this point, and not without benefit to the Bible
Society, the controversy closed, so far as Dr Wordsworth

1 It may be noted that both at home and in America the ordinary booksellers felt
the benefit of an increased interest in the Scriptures.

VOL. I. U

3o6 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PERIOD [1804-

was concerned ; and one regrets that the roll of the Society's
early supporters should not have included the name of the
youngest brother of the great Wordsworth, the brother-in-law
of Lamb's friend, Charles Lloyd, and the father of two sons
who became distinguished bishops.

A still more formidable attack, to which reference has
already been made,1 was opened in the same year, just before
the organization of the Cambridge Auxiliary, by the Rev.
Dr Marsh, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, in an
address to the Senate of the University. It was an appeal
to denominational prejudice. "The encouragement of the
ancient Bible Society must contribute to the welfare of the
Established Church"; "the encouragement of the modern
Society not only would contribute nothing to it in prefer-
ence to other Churches, but might contribute even to
its dissolution."1 He was answered by one of the Vice-
Presidents, the Right Hon. N. Vansittart (afterwards Lord
Bexley) ; and a few weeks later Dr Marsh, changing
his ground, produced An Inquiry into the Consequences of
neglecting to give the Prayer Book with the Bible, with
various animadversions on the Society. Replies were
speedily forthcoming from the pens of Dr E. Clarke, Mr
Dealtry, Mr Otter .(afterwards Bishop of Chichester), and
Mr Vansittart.3 In an eloquent speech at the second anni-
versary of the Leicester Auxiliary the Rev. Robert Hall,
the eminent Baptist preacher, answered with trenchant
vigour: "I am at an utter loss to conceive of a revelation

1 See chap. v. p. 71.

2 It is but fair to state that this spirit of antagonism was attributable only to a
section, more zealous than wise, of the supporters of the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge. One of these, anxious to improve on Dr Wordsworth's
reference to the "unforced extent and dignity" of that society, and to "the silent
and unostentatious manner in which all its proceedings were carried on," was
sufficiently injudicious to add : "So far has this forbearance been carried that their
very existence is unknown to many, even among the members of the Established
Church." Well may one say, Amico, e guardati !

3 The Rev. Charles Simeon, in the preface to his Four Sermons on the Liturgy,
also defended himself and the clerical members of the Society against Dr Marsh's
charges and implications.

iSi?] DR MARSH AND THE PRAYER BOOK 307

from Heaven that must not be trusted alone; of a rule of
life and manners which, in the same breath, is declared to
be perfect, and yet so obscure and incompetent that its
tendency to mislead shall be greater than its tendency to
conduct in the right path."1

Dr Marsh's discomfiture must have been crowned by
the publication of A Congratulatory Letter to the Rev. H.
Marsh, D.D., on his judicious Inquiry into the Consequences
of neglecting to give the Prayer Book with the Bible;
together -with a Sermon on the Inadequacy of the Bible to
be an exclusive Rule of Faith, inscribed to the same, by
the Rev. Peter Gandolphy, priest of the Catholic Church. In
vain the Lady Margaret Professor disclaimed the doctrines
ascribed to him ; the principle advanced in the Inquiry,
the priest insisted, led directly and logically to those
conclusions. If any further refutation were needed it was
supplied by Dean Milner, who, in the spring of 1813,
published a volume of Strictures on some of the Publica-
tions of the Rev. H. Marsh, D.D., intended as a Reply
to his Objections against the British and Foreign Bible
Society. Laconic titles were not one of the characteristics
of these old-time certamina tanta, but they often served as
adequate summaries. The Lady Margaret Professor laid
down his pen with the despondent admission : " I have long
since abandoned the thought of opposing the Bible Society.
When an institution is supported with all the fervour of
religious enthusiasm, and is aided by the weight of such
powerful additional causes, an attempt to oppose it is like
attempting to oppose a torrent of burning lava that issues
from JEtna or Vesuvius."

One happy result sprang out of Dr Marsh's attacks.
Mr G. F. Stratton, a gentleman of considerable influence,
who had been opposed to the Society, became now so
decidedly convinced of its excellence that he initiated and

1 Hall, Works, vol. iv. p. 365.

308 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PERIOD [1804-

brought to a successful issue the preliminary arrangements
for the establishment of the Oxfordshire Auxiliary.1

In the summer of 1812, while Dr Marsh was contending
that in giving the Bible alone, the Bible Society had given
too little, Dr Maltby, who many years afterwards became
Bishop of Durham, protested that the Society was giving
too much. " Out of sixty-six books, which form the contents
of the Old and New Testament, not above seven in the Old,
and not above eleven in the New," he declared in his
Thoughts on the Utility and Expediency of the Plans of the
British and Foreign Bible Society, "appear to be calculated
for the study or comprehension of the unlearned." An able
rejoinder was issued by the Rev. John Cunningham, vicar
of Harrow, whom we have already met at Earlham ; and
the Rev. Robert Hall dealt with the subject in one of his
speeches. It is hardly needful to quote the brief sentences
which contain, as in a nutshell, a complete answer to
Dr Maltby's contention: "From the Word of God there
can be no appeal : it must decide its own character and
determine its own pretensions. Thus much we must be
allowed to assume, that if it was originally given to mankind
indiscriminately, no power upon earth is entitled to restrict
it."2 Probably Dr Maltby was scarcely aware of the
mischievous consequences of the theory which he was
advocating, but who can fail to be struck with the spectacle
of two distinguished men, destined to episcopal seats,
sacrificing to partisanship the open and unglossed Bible
which was the charter of their Church?

In 1815 and 1816 pastoral charges, more or less adverse
to the Society, were delivered by the Bishops of Lincoln
(Dr Pretyman), Chester (Dr Law), Carlisle (Dr Goodenough),
and Ely (Dr Sparke). That of the Bishop of Lincoln was

1 It is unnecessary to particularise the History of Translations ; a pamphlet in
which, with abundant misrepresentation and manifest ill-will, Dr Marsh endeavoured
to disparage the work of the Society in another direction, or to recall the forgotten
assaults of minor pamphlets.

2 JIall, Works, vol. iv. p. 384.

FOUR UNFRIENDLY BISHOPS 309

not printed, but his lordship was represented as considering
"the constitution of the Society to be very dangerous to the
established religion," and as declaring it to be "as absurd
and unaccountable for those who pray against false doctrine,
heresy, and schism to join in religious associations with those
who avow the falsest doctrine, most notorious heresies, and
most determined schism," as it would be for patriots to abet,
comfort, and arm the enemies of their country. The Bishop
of Chester deprecated the possible danger of the Bible
Society, and emphasised the unquestionable service that
would be rendered to Church and State by adhesion to the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Dr Good-
enough (Carlisle) had no better reason to urge for his
opposition than the extraordinary statement that he did not
think the Bible Society "calculated to introduce purer
notions of religion than we have at present, or to increase
the understanding of the Scriptures beyond what our present
means will do." The Bishop of Ely thought the Society
superfluous and inexpedient in this country ; to its work
abroad or to its foreign relations he had no objections.
The history of the Society, the cause of its inception, and the
character of its development constituted the most obvious
and the most unanswerable reply to these charges. Of the
letters and pamphlets of smaller antagonists, what were they
but Worte voin Schnee der vorm Jahre fiel — words of snow
that fell yester-year? They were permitted in their season,
and for a wise purpose ; to-day they are forgotten.

It will be of interest, not solely as a record of the past,
but as indicating the status of the Society, and the increas-
ing range of its personal associations, to mention the
chief speakers at its anniversary meetings : —

1805 — May I. At the New London Tavern. — Lord Teignmouth, Presi-
dent, in the chair. The Bishop of Durham (Barrington),
William Wilberforce, Esq., M.P.

310 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PERIOD [1804-

1806 — May 7. At the New London Tavern. — Lord Teignmouth, Presi-
dent, in the chair. Thomas Babington, Esq., M.P.,
Sir William Pepperell, Bart.

1807 — May 6. At the New London Tavern. — Lord Teignmouth, Presi-
dent, in the chair. The Bishop of Salisbury (Fisher),
Sir William Pepperell, Bart.

1808 — May 4. At the New London Tavern. — Lord Teignmouth, Presi-
dent, in the chair. The Bishop of Durham, William
Wilberforce, Esq., M.P.

1809 — May 3. At the New London Tavern. — Lord Teignmouth, Presi-
dent, in the chair. The Bishop of Durham, William
Sharp, Esq., William Wilberforce, Esq., M.P.

1810— May 2. At the London Tavern, Bishopsgate Street. — Lord
Teignmouth, President, in the chair. Lord Henniker,
the Bishop of St David's (Burgess), the Bishop of
Salisbury, William Wilberforce, Esq., M.P., the Warden
of Manchester (Rev. Dr Blackburn), the Bishop of
Cloyne (Bennett), Sir Alexander Johnston, Chief Justice
of Ceylon.

1811 — May i. At the Freemasons' Hall. — Lord Teignmouth, President,
in the chair. Lord Gambier, J. Du Pre Porcher, Esq.,
M.P., the Bishop of Durham, Thomas Babington, Esq.,
M.P., Henry Thornton, Esq., M.P., the Bishop of Salis-
bury, Lord Headley, John Harman, Esq.

1812 — May 6. At the Freemasons' Hall. — Lord Teignmouth, President,
in the chair. The Bishop of Kildare (Lindsay), Lord
Calthorpe, William Wilberforce, Esq., M.P., the Bishop
of Cloyne, the Rev. Dr Winter, Sir Thomas Baring,
Bart., M.P., the Bishop of Meath (O'Beirne), the Right
Hon. N. Vansittart, M.P., Charles Grant, Esq., M.P.,
Thomas Babington, Esq., M.P., the Bishop of Norwich
(Bathurst), the Bishop of Salisbury, the Rev. Thomas
White, M.A., Henry Thornton, Esq., M.P., Thomas
Boddington, Esq., Lord Gambier.

1813 — May 5. At the Freemasons' Hall. — Lord Teignmouth, President,
in the chair. H.R.H. the Duke of Kent (in the absence
of the Duke of York), the Bishop of Salisbury, H.R.H.
the Duke of Sussex, the Hon. and Very Rev. the Dean
of Wells (Ryder), the Rev. Dr Gray, Prebendary of
Durham, the Rev. John Clayton, the Rev. John W.
Cunningham, Charles Noel, Esq., M.P., Lord Gambier,
the Rev. Dr Young, the Bishop of Norwich, the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer (Vansittart), the Rev. W.
Dealtry, the Bishop of St David's, the Bishop of Cloyne.

1814 — May 4. At the Freemasons' Hall. — Lord Teignmouth, President

18171 ANNIVERSARY MEETINGS 311

in the chair. H.R.H. the Duke of Kent, the Dean of
Wells, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Bishop of
Salisbury, Count de la Gardie (Swedish Ambassador to
the Court of Madrid), the Rev. George Burder, the
Bishop of Norwich, Charles Grant, jun., M.P., the Earl
of Northesk, the Rev. Dr Romayn, the Warden of
Manchester, J. Du Pre Porcher, Esq., M.P., Henry
Thornton, Esq., M.P., the Rev. Dr Thorpe, Lord
Gambier, the Rev. W. Dealtry, the Rev. Dr Macbride,
Zachary Macaulay, Esq.

1815 — May 3. At the Freemasons' Hall. — Lord Teignmouth, President,
in the chair. The Dean of Wells, E. W. Stockhouse,
Esq., H.R.H. the Duke of Kent, Sir Thomas Dyke
Acland, Bart, M.P., R. H. Inglis, Esq., Dr Collyer, the
Bishop of Norwich, Captain Hawtrey, Robert Grant,
Esq., the Rev. Dr Thorpe, William Wilberforce, Esq.,
M.P., Lord Headley, John Thornton, Esq., the Rev.
Hugh Pearson, the Rev. W. Dealtry, Lord Gambier,
Baron Anker (Norway).

1816 — May i. At the Freemasons' Hall. — Lord Teignmouth, President,
in the chair. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Vansit-
tart), the Bishop of Gloucester (Ryder), C. Barclay, Esq.,
M.P., the Bishop of Salisbury, the Hon. Charles Shore
(son of the President), the Rev. William Roby, the
Bishop of Clogher (Porter), Luke Howard, Esq. (of the
Society of Friends), Lord Gambier, the Rev. J. F. Usko,
the Bishop of Cloyne, the Rev. Jabez Bunting, the
Bishop of Norwich, the Rev. Mr Kierulff (of the Danish
Church, London), Charles Grant, jun., Esq., M.P.

1817 — May 7. At the Freemasons' Hall. — Lord Teignmouth, President,
in the chair. William Wilberforce, Esq., M.P., the
Bishop of Salisbury, the Bishop of Gloucester, Sir T.
Dyke Acland, Bart, M.P., W. T. Money, Esq., M.P.,
the Rev. George Clayton, Sir George Grey, Bart., John
Weyland, jun., the Rev. Dr Mason, the Rev. Richard
Watson, the Rev. Dr Thorpe, Major-General Macaulay,
the Bishop of Norwich, the Rev. Edward Burn, the
Bishop of Cloyno, the Rev. John Paterson, the Rev.
Professor Paxton, the Rev. Daniel Wilson, Lord
Gambier.

In May 1807 the Committee were empowered to nominate
as Life Members such persons as had rendered essential
services to the Society, and at the next annual meeting this

312 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PERIOD [1804-

power was extended to the nomination of Life Governors.
During the period under review, the following names, in
recognition of eminent service, were included in the roll
of Honorary Life Governors : —

1810-11— The Rev. Josiah Pratt,
1811-12 — Granville Sharp, Esq.,

The Rev. John Owen,

The Rev. Joseph Hughes,

The Rev. Charles Steinkopff,

The Rev. John Jsenicke, Berlin,

Thomas Hammersley, Esq.,

The Rev. Professor William Dealtry,

Richard Phillips, Esq.,
1812-13 — The Rev. Dr Brunnmark,

The Rev. Thomas Gisborne,

Sir Alexander Johnston, Chief Justice of Ceylon,

The Rev. John Cunningham, Harrow,

The Rev. Dr Schwabe,

The Rev. Dr Werninck, of the Dutch Church, Austin Friars,

The Rev. John Townsend,1 Bermondsey,

and, on different occasions, the Rev. Dr Adam Clarke,
Liverpool ; Lieut.-Col. Burgess, Hackney ; the Rev. Edward
Burn, Birmingham ; Charles Stokes Dudley, Esq. ; Sir
George Grey, Bart., and Lady Grey; the Rev. Dr F. W.
Hertzog, Basel ; the Rev. Charles Jerram, M.A., vicar of
Chobham ; the Hon. and Rev. G. T. Noel, M.A., rector
of Rainham ; Christopher Sundius, Esq. (Stoke Newing-
ton) ; and James Gisbert Van der Smissen, Esq. (Altona).

Over many familiar names, even in the brief space of
thirteen years, time carved its Hie jacet.

In 1807, John Newton, the sailor, slave-trader, hymn-
writer, and author, the revered rector of St Mary Wool-
noth, the counsellor whose spiritual influence left an
ineffaceable mark on his period, passed away in the eighty-
fifth year of his age and the fifty-third of his ministry.

1 Independent minister, founder of the London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb,
and one of the original members and promoters of the London Missionary Society.

i8i7] THE DEATH OF BISHOP PORTEUS 313

The Bishop of London (Dr Porteus) died at Fulham on
his seventy-seventh birthday, 8th May 1808, and in accordance
with his wish was buried among the aged trees in the grave-
yard at Sundridge, his favourite summer resort in Kent,
where he had built a chapel of ease and parsonage. While
he was rector at Lambeth, Queen Charlotte had him raised
to the see of Chester, in 1776, and eleven years later he was
translated to London. His administrative ability and his
erudition were not more conspicuous than his practical
Christianity. Without committing himself to a party, he
encouraged the Evangelical movement at a time when it
required some independence to countenance so disparaged a
section of the Church ; warmly promoted Sunday schools,
the observance of Sundays and religious holy days, and the
abolition of slavery ; supported all schemes of piety and
benevolence, and, with a hand as liberal as his tongue was
eloquent, concerned himself with the needs of his poorer
clergy. His books have passed out of memory, though the
curious in literature may still conjecture how and to what
extent he assisted Hannah More in her Calebs in Search of a
Wife, and readers of Boswell will recollect his reference
to the "excellent charge" in which his lordship rebuked
foppery among clerics. At the inauguration of the Chester
Auxiliary the gentle Thomas Gisborne lamented his loss : —
" The brightness of that Prelate's example irradiated the paths
of the Bible Society over lands from which he is taken away,
and shines to lead other Bishops of Chester and other Bishops
of London to be — what once was Bishop Porteus."

On the 6th July 1813, th» chivalrous Granville Sharp1
lay dead in the house of his brother William's widow. No
more in the early dawn shall he intone to his Davidic harp
one of the songs of Zion. The quaint wig and queue and
old-world garb have vanished from Clapham Common and

1 " As long as Granville Sharp survived, it was too soon to proclaim that the
age of chivalry was gone." — Stephen, Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, p. 540.

314 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PERIOD

the streets of London. The kindly eyes, which seemed to
be always gazing, as in a dream, upward and onward at
something that pleased him well, are closed for ever to
earthly vision. He was laid to rest in the family vault at
Fulham, where there is an inscription to his memory.
Chantrey carved a medallion, which was placed by
the African Institution in Poets' Corner, Westminster
Abbey ; but the most enduring monument to his good-
ness is contained in the memorable phrase, "The slave
who sets his foot on English ground is free." In 1785
he became a member of the Society for the Propaga-
tion of the Gospel ; in 1804 he presided at the formation
of the Bible Society; in 1807 he helped to form the African
Institution, and in 1808 the Society for the Conversion of
the Jews. The history and destinies of the Chosen People
exercised a singular fascination over his subtle and visionary
intellect. In the Appendix to his Three Tracts on the Syntax
and Pronunciation of the Hebrew Tongue, he printed Samuel
Brett's remarkable " Narrative of the Proceedings of a Great
Council of Jews, assembled in the Plain of Ageda in
Hungary, about 30 miles distant from Buda, to examine the
Scriptures concerning Christ : on the i2th of October 1650." 1
He must often have thought of that strange seven-days' dis-
cussion "concerning Christ, whether He be already come, or
whether we are yet to expect His coming," and the assem-
bling on the eighth day, when those present agreed "upon
another meeting of their Nation three years after " ; and every
report sent into the Bible Society regarding the willingness
of the Jews in Russia and Poland to receive the Scriptures
must have given him a keen delight, for, like Samuel Brett
a century and a half before, he believed "there were many
Jewes that would be perswaded to own the Lord Jesus." He

1 A copy of Brett's " Narrative " is preserved in the Bodleian at Oxford, and it is to
be found in vol. i. of the Harleian Miscellany, pp. 379-385, which was published in
London in ten quarto volumes in 1813. The "Narrative" was issued as a pam-
phlet by Longmans & Co. in 1875.

i8i7] "THERE IS A REFUGE" 315

was a man of indefatigably active intellect and curious
erudition. The list of his sixty-one works includes, among
many forgotten treatises, that in which "he combated on
more than equal terms the great Hebraist, Dr Kennicott,
in defence of Ezra's catalogue of the sacred vessels, chiefs,
and families,"1 and the Remarks on the Uses of the Definite
Article in the Greek Testament, which contains his formulation
of what came to be known as " Granville Sharp's canon" —
the rule, namely, that "where two personal nouns of the
same case are connected by the copulate /cat, if the former has
the definite article and the latter has not, they both belong to
the same person " ; for example, in the phrase TOV Qtov ^//wi'
KCU Kvpiov 'Irjcrov Xptcrrov, " God " and "the Lord Jesus Christ"
are one and the same person.

In 1814, on the 5th October, the Rev. Thomas Charles
died at Bala. For some years he had been in failing
health, but he lived to see his last wish fulfilled — the com-
pletion of a new edition of the Welsh Bible which he had
prepared for the press. "There is a refuge " were among
his last words.

The death of the first Chairman of the Bible Society
was soon followed by that of the first Treasurer — Henry
Thornton, M.P. Little need be added here to the brief
sketch which appears in our third chapter. He was only in
his fifty-fifth year, but his health had always been delicate.
He appeared to pass unscathed through the bitter winter
of i8i3-i8i4,2 but grave symptoms set in during October in
the latter year, and he was removed from his own house in
Palace Yard to that of his friend William Wilberforce, at
Kensington Gore. Here, encompassed by the tender observ-
ances of those who were dear to him, comforted by the

1 Stephen, Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, p. 540.

- The winter of 1813-14 was long remembered for its severity. For miles around
London a dense fog prevailed, and was followed by a succession of snow-storms all
over the country. On the 27th December frost set in, and continued almost without
a break till the 5th February. The Thames was frozen over, and a "Frost Fair"
was held on the ice.

316 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PERIOD

promises of the Gospel, and especially by the familiar chapter
on faith and "the worthy fruits thereof in the fathers of old
time,"1 he lay in calm and patient desire of "a better
country." The end came on the i6th January 1815, and in
a little while his gentle wife followed him.

He was succeeded as Treasurer, both at the Bible Society
and the Church Missionary Society, by his nephew, John
Thornton, who was then in his thirty-second year, and who,
at Cambridge, had been the intimate friend of Reginald
Heber, and the Grants, Charles (Lord Glenelg) and Robert.

In the same year the Society lost one of its honoured
Vice-Presidents, the scholarly Vincent, Dean of Westminster,
whose mind delighted to expatiate with erudite gravity over
the romantic regions of the Voyage of Nearchus and the
mysterious seas through which the old traders fared to
Taprobane and the Golden Chersonese.

A more notable Vice-President, Dr Watson, the Bishop of
Llandaff, passed away on the 5th July 1816, aged seventy-nine.
Chemist, theologian, apologist for the Bible and Christianity,
he was a celebrated figure, on which Nature had bestowed
stalwart physical proportions in addition to brilliant mental
endowments. It may be doubted whether the dignity of the
mitre ever compensated him for the surrendered charms of
the crucible. "When I was elected Professor of Divinity
in 1771," he relates, "I determined to abandon for ever the
study of chemistry, and I did abandon it for several years ;
but the veteris vestigia flauunce still continued to delight me,
and at length seduced me from my purpose. When I was
made a Bishop, in 1782, I again determined to quit my
favourite pursuit : the volume which I now offer to the public
[the fifth and last of his Chemical Essays] is a sad proof of
the imbecility of my resolution. I have on this day, however,
offered a sacrifice to other people's notions, I confess, rather
than to my own opinion, of episcopal dignity — I have

1 Hebrews, chap. xi.

1817] SUMMARY OF THIRTEEN YEARS 317

destroyed all my chemical manuscripts. A prospect of
returning health might have persuaded me to pursue this
delightful science ; but I have now certainly done with it for
ever ; at least I have taken the most effectual steps I could
to wean myself from an attachment to it ; for, with the holy
zeal of the idolaters of old, who had been addicted to curious
arts, I have burned my books." Dr Marsh, as has already
been mentioned, succeeded him in the see of Llandaff. But
if the Society had lost in him a staunch episcopal supporter,
it gained, about the same date, another to replace him in
the Dean of Wells, the Hon. Henry Ryder, who was
raised to the Bishopric of Gloucester on the death of Dr
Huntingford.

Here the first period of the history of the Bible
Society closes. During thirteen years we have watched the
steady growth of its Auxiliaries, Branches, and Associations
throughout these islands ; we have seen allied societies
springing up in the New World and the Old — among the
nations of the North, in Central Europe, in Russia ; from
Labrador to the Gulf of Mexico, from Long Island to the
West beyond the Mississippi ; in South Africa ; in India ;
in the isles of the Malay Archipelago. In many tongues
the Word of Life has been scattered abroad. The Eskimo
reads it on the margin of the polar ice-cap ; the Kaffir child
spells it under the pear-tree in the Clough of the Baboons.
The Red Indian carries it in his breast as he threads the
forest or paddles on the Great Lakes ; the Negro learns it by
heart on the plantations ; on the Russian steppe it is in the
hands of the moujik and the wandering herdsman. It has
reached the Brahmin and the Sudra ; the Chinaman ponders
over it, and burns his idols of rice-paper. Armed frigates,
merchantmen, convict-ships, bear it over the seas of the world.
Even so, Paul may plant and Apollos water ; God alone can
give the increase,

318 THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST PERIOD [1804-1817

In the year 1816-17 trle Society was reported to have in
the United Kingdom 236 Auxiliaries and 305 Branches. It
had received from England, Scotland, and Wales subscrip-
tions, donations, legacies, etc., amounting to ^407,905. By
the sale of the Scriptures it had realised .£179,549.

Up to 3Oth June 1817 there had been printed for the
Society editions of the Scriptures in nineteen languages,
i.e. ; — 816,278 Bibles, 991,983 Testaments and Portions =
1,808,261 volumes; and there had been distributed — 765,936
Bibles, 950,446 Testaments and Portions = 1,716,382 volumes.
There had been purchased on the Continent and issued for
the Society 30,000 Bibles, 70,000 Testaments = 100,000
volumes. The total circulation up to date had accordingly
been 795,936 Bibles, 1,020,446 Testaments and Portions—
1,816,382 volumes.

On the Continent, Bible Societies, aided by donations
from the British and Foreign Bible Society, had printed
446,100 Bibles, Testaments, and Portions.

The Society had aided in the production and circula-
tion of the Scriptures in sixty-six different languages. In
promoting the cause in all parts of the world, the total
expenditure had been ,£541,504.

SECOND PERIOD, 1817—1834

CHAPTER XVII

THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY

"NATURE," said Richter, "forces on our hearts a Creator;
history a Providence." In the preceding chapters the reader
can hardly fail to have been impressed by the unforeseen
developments, by the strange co-operation of contingencies,
by the spiritual guidance which seemed to mark with divine
approval the early years of the Bible Society, and not less —
indeed still more — by the spirit of loyalty to a single purpose
which had long bound together in active benevolence many
men of different religious convictions, political principles,
and social position.

We now enter on the second period of our history. For
some wise end God permitted it to be a period of checks
and trials, of many losses, of ordeals so severe that the work,
and the very fabric of the Society, appeared to be menaced
with sudden dissolution ; yet who can doubt that in these
times of crisis the blessing of Heaven was as manifestly
operative as ever it had been in the prosperous years which
had gone by?

This second period covers the interval between 1817 and
1834. It is limited by no arbitrary division. A natural
line of cleavage separates the year 1833-4 fr°m tne remainder
of the first half century, and may be said to close the era
of the Early Men, One by one, as the years went past,

319

320 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

the names of many of the most influential friends and patrons
of the institution had dropped from the annual roll of its
Vice-Presidents and the list of its Committee. By 1834 two
of the original Secretaries were dead, the third had retired
after two-and-twenty years of zealous service, and the first
President, crowned with the honour of fourscore and the
reverence of all good men, had departed to his rest.

It was in 1834 also that definite shape was given to a
new method in the administration of the Society. The
development of Auxiliaries, Branches, and Associations had
characterised the first period ; the second was marked by an
extraordinary accession of Ladies' Associations, and by the
general adoption of Mr Dudley's admirable scheme of
district work. These, however, were but a more thoroughly
organised extension of the system already in existence.
What was new was the appointment of the "accredited
agent," first one, then another, and yet a third, as the
' requirements of the time demanded, till at length, in 1834,
the country was mapped out into four great districts, with
an agent for each, constantly moving about in his own area,
acquiring an intimate knowledge of the people within the
limits of his charge, stimulating and guiding the Auxiliaries,
assisting in the formation of new societies, and maintaining
a constant relationship between the Committee and the many
hundreds of institutions scattered all over the kingdom.

At home this new method, which in a more completely
developed form was destined to be permanent, was gradually
evolved by the pressure of natural circumstances ; abroad
it became a sudden necessity as the most adequate alternative
to the original continental system which was dislocated by
the great controversy of 1825. We shall see the matter more
clearly, however, as the narrative follows the sequence of
events.

But before we can take up that narrative, an attempt must
be made to shadow forth a suggestion of the unseen and

1834] UNRECORDED INFLUENCE 321

unrecorded work which the Society must have been
unconsciously performing during the dark years of distress
and labour troubles and political excitement, which elapsed
between the close of the Napoleonic wars and the passing
of the Reform Bill. It is beyond the power of human insight
to define the spiritual influence which it brought to bear on
the momentous questions of the time ; the share which it
took in abolishing barbarous and oppressive laws, and in
securing for the nation the conditions of a more prosperous
existence ; the extent to which it educated the young genera-
tion and enlightened the ignorance of the old ; l yet to deny
that the Society counted for much in all these respects would
be to maintain that it was no more than a huge and
unprofitable printing-machine ; that the numerous Associa-
tions throughout the length and breadth of the land had no
real significance ; that the Bibles and Testaments dispersed
in hundreds of thousands among the population were so
much waste paper ; and that the eagerness of all classes to
obtain possession of the Word of Life was an unmeaning
craze.

The times were too cruel in their severity to admit of
any such craze. Consider the picture of the misery which
prevailed, and which was constantly recurring: "The
harvest of 1816 was so poor that wheat rose to io6s. per
quarter. Employment was scarce, and wages in many
occupations were low. Depression pervaded nearly all
industries. Factories were closed ; iron furnaces were blown
out ; coal pits were shut up. Idle and hungry men wandered
over the country, vainly seeking for employment. Hunger
persuades men to evil, and the sufferers of those days were
no wiser than other sufferers have been. Incendiary fires
lighted up the evening sky. Bands of lawless persons

1 It would be easy to prove the remarkable impulse which the distribution of
the Scriptures gave to the desire for learning among both young and old. A single
indication will suffice. In 1833 there were 16,828 Sunday schools with 1,548,890
scholars.

VOL. I. X

322 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

attacked factories and destroyed machinery, which, as they
supposed, lessened the demand for human labour. In cities
riots of huge dimensions were of constant occurrence. Once
the mob in Glasgow were strong enough and fierce enough
to maintain a fight of two days with the soldiers."1 The
colliers on Tyneside flung a chain of boats across the river
to prevent vessels putting to sea without a regular permit ;
in the Black Country they paraded the streets harnessed to
loads of coal to excite commiseration, and some even set
out for London to make a popular demonstration of their
distress, but were stopped on the way.

For thirty years the monstrous Corn Law, which was
enacted in 1815 not for the purpose of public revenue but
solely to maintain the rental of the landowners, blighted the
hopes and energies of the people. "No foreign grain was
to be imported until wheat in the home markets had been
for six months at or over 8os. per quarter." In the Scottish
capital an attempt was made to regulate by proclamation
the family supply of bread, and sale was forbidden until
the loaves had been twenty-four hours out of the oven. In
country places labourers tried to keep body and soul together
on roots and wild plants, and died of starvation. If corn
might be imported on certain terms, trade in foreign cattle,
alive or slaughtered, was prohibited sans phrase. Salt was
taxed to forty times its value, and fortunate was the poor
housewife who could use sea- water in her cookery. Windows
were taxed, and men suffered the discomfort and unhealthiness
of excluded light and air. Everything was taxed, from
the schoolboy's top to the medicine of the dying man.

Little wonder that in such circumstances there was a
clamour for Parliamentary reform ; that men's minds were
influenced by the cry that the land was "the people's farm,"
and the landowners their stewards ; that Reform clubs
sprang up in all directions, that seats in the Commons

1 Mackenzie, The Nineteenth Century, bk. ii. chap, ii.

1834] DISTRESS AND REFORM 323

were claimed by unrepresented towns, and huge meetings
were assembled to pass reiterated resolutions, and to sign
gigantic petitions. And when the Government persisted
in its exasperating policy of fixed bayonets and cavalry
charges and hurried measures passed to silence the press
and stifle open discussion, to search for arms, to prevent
drilling, to supersede the ordinary course of justice,
is it surprising that the English people hailed with a
startling approval the revolution which tumbled Charles
X. from the throne of France? It was a grim object-lesson
to the country, and to its rulers, how a people might
obtain in three days the reforms which had been refused
through fifteen years of constitutional agitation.

As late as 1830 the innumerable petitions presented to
the House of Commons from every county distinctly showed
the distress that prevailed in all parts of the kingdom,
and in every branch of industry ; l yet during this long
interval of suffering and trouble the Bible Society was
extending its operations in all directions, and it was chiefly
among the classes who most keenly felt the burden of
heavy taxes, dear food, low wages, and commercial depres-
sion that the new Branches and Associations were being
formed. It is astonishing that in such conditions the
work did not either come to a standstill for lack of
means, or dwindle away into insignificant proportions.
That it did not, — that on the contrary it maintained a
high average level, is perhaps the most convincing evidence
that the Society was a living power among the other moral,
social, and political powers of the age, the influence of
which, though it cannot be gauged by statistics, was none
the less real, penetrating, and pervasive. Glance at the
following figures, and endeavour to deduce from them
some conception of their spiritual import. They show the
remittances from the Auxiliary Societies, and the amount

1 Molesworth, History of the Reform Bill of 1832, pp. 78-95,

324 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY 11817-

received for the sale of Bibles and Testaments, apart from
the resources derived from legacies, donations, annual
subscriptions, etc.

From Auxiliaries.

By Sales.

Total.

1818

.£55,875

.£18,620

.£74,495

1819

56,604

27,499

84,103

1820

51,129

29,297

80,426

1821

52,314

25,873

78,187

1822

59,117

30,56l

89,678

1823

56,738

3O,226

86,964

In the following year a change was made in the method
of entry. The remittances from the Auxiliaries were no
longer shown in the gross, but were divided into "free"
contributions, applicable to the general purposes of the
Society, and the amounts for which supplies of the
Scriptures were to be returned, and these last were added
to the sale figures.

Free Contributions.

For Scriptures.

Total.

1824

.£42,007

,£41,700

.£83,707

1825

40,332

39,192

79,524

1826

36,631

36,013

72,644

1827

34,337

33,671

68,008

No doubt the decline in the last two years, as in those
which succeeded, represents most saliently the effect of
the Apocrypha controversy, and the secession of the great
Scottish Auxiliaries which was among its unhappy con-
sequences ; but it must not be forgotten that it bears,
probably to no inconsiderable extent, the trace of the
disastrous December of 1825, when the mania for specula-
tion involved thousands of innocent victims in unparalleled
ruin and desolation. Commercial panic followed the first
metropolitan failures ; about seventy Banks stopped pay-
ment ; public companies, firms, and private concerns were
swept away wholesale. The three millions, which was the
outside limit to which the Government induced the Bank of
England authorities to make advances to private individuals

1834] "MONTHLY EXTRACTS" 325

on various securities, affords but a vague indication of the
wide-spread catastrophe.

The following table brings us up to 1830 : —

Free Contributions. For Scriptures. Total.

1828 ,£33,394 .£33,336 ,£66,730

1829 33,183 40,255 73,438

1830 29,470 39,625 69,095

Bearing in mind the condition of the country, it is
impossible to look at these figures — one series showing,
from 1824 to 1830, ,£263,793 spent on the circulation of
the Scriptures, the other ^249,354 freely devoted to the
Bible cause — without being convinced that there is an
aspect of the work of the Society as inscrutable to the
historian as is the dark side of the moon to the astronomer.
One can only conjecture to how many thousands, in those
years of violence and distress, the Word of God was a
restraint and a warning,1 a strength and a consolation,
the well of hope and the bread of a fixed trust ; among
how many of the educated and powerful it awoke a sense
of justice and a sympathy with humanity, accompanied
by a better wisdom for the guidance and rule of the
country.

We may now turn to the record of events.

In August 1817 the Committee gave effect to the happy
idea of publishing monthly a sheet of extracts selected from
its voluminous and singularly interesting correspondence.
"Monthly Extracts" was a small and unpretentious issue
of four double-column quarto pages, afterwards modified
to eight octavo ; but it served to keep the Committee in
touch with its Auxiliaries and Associations, whose meetings
were thus enlivened by brief notes of events at home, and

1 Adverting to the turbulent state of the country, Lord Teignmouth wrote in
October 1819 : "I cannot but flatter myself with a belief that matters would have
been much worse if the Bible Society, with all its confederations, had never existed ;
and I am willing to believe that our Institution has promoted a religious feeling, which
will in some degree counteract the machinations of treason and blasphemy." — Memoir
of the Life and Correspondence of John, Lord Teignmouth, vol. ii. p. 359.

326 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

by vivid glimpses of men and manners in remote countries
and of the Bible work prosecuted among peoples whose
very names were often a new sound in their ears. To the
poorer subscribers in particular these pages were a source
of surprise and delight, and the demand for them quickly
rose to 40,000 copies a month. Even to this day much
that they contain may be read with pleasure, and here
and there one meets with passages which can still quicken
the pulse or bring a mist to the eyes.

In 1815, as we have seen, a Marine Bible Society — the
first of the kind — was formed on board one of the Govern-
ment packets on the Falmouth station. Earlier still, in
1813, the Thames Union Bible Committee, composed of
the secretaries and a representative of each of the four
Auxiliaries bordering on the river (the London, Blackheath,
East London, and Southwark) had given attention to the
needs of the sea-going population ; similar Associations
had been formed at Whitby, Hull, and Aberdeen ; and
among individual agencies Lady Grey had distributed
many thousands of volumes among British and foreign
mariners at Portsmouth. It was now felt, however, that
a more systematic effort should be made in this direction ;
and on the 2Qth January 1818, under the chairmanship of
the Lord Mayor (the Right Hon. C. Smith, M.P.) and
the patronage of a list of vice-presidents which included
Lord Melville, Lord Exmouth, Lord Calthorpe, Lord
Gambier, the Hon. Nicolas Vansittart, the two Grants,
William Wilberforce, and other distinguished persons,
the Merchant Seamen's Auxiliary Bible Society was in-
augurated at the Mansion House "to provide Bibles for
at least 120,000 British seamen now destitute of them."
An agent was appointed, whose duty it was to visit every
outward-bound ship that brought up at Gravesend, or
stopped long enough for boarding, to see how she was
supplied with the Holy Scriptures, how many of the crew

1834] BIBLE WORK ON THE THAMES 327

could read, and to provide by sale to the men individually,
or otherwise, sufficient books for their use.

Between the Februaries of 1818 and 1819 Lieut. Cox,
who was stationed at Gravesend, supplied as many as
1681 vessels, whose crews numbered 24,765 men, of whom
21,671 were able to read. He found on board 1475 Bibles
and 725 Testaments, the private property of officers and
seamen, but no copies for general use. There were up-
wards of 590 ships (6149 men, of whom 5490 could read)
in which there was no copy of the Scriptures. In many
other cases there was but a solitary volume. On the other
hand, a number of Scottish vessels were better provided.
On board the Mary of Kirkcaldy belonging to Henry
Oliphant — one likes to preserve the good man's name —
every hand had his Bible, from Sandy Craig, the master,
to the cabin-boy. It was the same with a Dutchman,
carrying a crew of twelve. Here there were prayers, sing-
ing, and reading daily, and grace was said before and after
meals. Occasionally both captains and men made such
donations as they could afford, to help the Society and
defray the expenses it was put to. Several mates got per-
mission to call the men aft in the evening to hear the
Word of God ; and it became a common practice for those
who could read to teach those who could not. At times
amusing or interesting little incidents occurred. A very
old man in a French craft, with apples from Gravelines,
was delighted with a copy of the New Testament, and
earnestly begged the agent to take its value in "rosy-
cheeks." Captain Lorand of the Dugay Trowen \Duguay
Trouijt] of La Rochelle, had possessed a French Testament
in the old days when he was a prisoner of war, but had
unhappily lost it; "he greedily received the present of
another, and promised to read the good book to all under
his authority." "Sir," said the captain of another vessel,
"we are all glad to see you. The Testaments you sold

328 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

here on your last visit were given away at Prince Edward
Island [off Nova Scotia] by those who bought them, and
they were highly prized indeed, equal to old gold ! "
During the year, 1705 Bibles and 4068 Testaments were
gratuitously furnished to these ships for the use of the
crews, and 390 Bibles and 207 Testaments were sold to
the seamen at half price.

No long interval elapsed before Seamen's Societies were
established in various sea-ports ; the small coasting craft
were not overlooked, and the Naval and Military Bible
Society extended its work to the inland traffic on our
rivers and canals.

In ten years a remarkable change is to be noted in the
character of the sea-faring population. During the year
1829, in the crowd of shipping visited at Gravesend only
four vessels (with crews numbering 47 men) were found to
be wholly destitute of the Scriptures ; and these four were
foreigners. One thousand ships were boarded, and of
these only 250 were now visited for the first time. In these
250 vessels there were 3891 men, of whom 3483 could
read, and there were among them 1966 Bibles and 92
Testaments. Contrast this with the 1475 Bibles and 725
Testaments found among 24,765 men in 1818-19. A still
more satisfactory condition of things appears in the report
for 1830. In the first year of this kind of work, only 597
copies of the Scriptures had been sold to the seamen ; 5773
had been left on the ships without payment. Now 5369
copies were sold, and the agents — their number had been
increased to three, two on the upper reaches of the river, and
the third at Gravesend — had not found it necessary to leave
more than three Bibles and seventeen Testaments unpaid for.

Here we have evidence not only that such an Auxiliary
was greatly wanted, but that the opportunities which
it afforded were appreciated. It need scarcely be added
that its exertions were heartily encouraged by the

1834] OWEN AND OBERLIN 329

Committee. At the outset a supply of the Scriptures to
the value of ^1061 was voted, and other liberal grants
were made in later years. During the whole period now
under review Bibles and Testaments to the value of ^4401
were distributed at the expense of the Society to British
soldiers and sailors, and to foreign seamen and fishermen
who frequented our coasts.

In 1817 two of the Secretaries, Mr Hughes and Mr
Owen, were prostrated by a long and severe illness. The
former made a steady recovery, but Mr Owen's health was
so far from being restored that in the following year the
Committee prevailed on him to make a tour on the
Continent, in the course of which he would have oppor-
tunities of inspecting a number of the foreign Auxiliaries.
Accompanied by the Assistant Foreign Secretary, Mr
Rb'nneberg, he started on the 25th August, visited Paris,
Strasburg, Waldbach, Colmar, Miilhausen, Basel, Constance,
St Gall, Berne, Lausanne, Geneva and other centres of
Bible interest in Switzerland ; and returned home by way
of Paris on the 2nd December.1

Perhaps the most interesting episode in this journey
was the brief sojourn at Waldbach, where he spent a
Sunday with the aged Oberlin, and accompanied him to
one of the three churches in his extensive mountain cure.
"Mr Oberlin took the lead, in his ministerial attire — a
large beaver and flowing wig, — mounted on a horse
brought for that purpose, according to custom, by one of
the bourgeois of the village, whose turn it was to have the
honour of fetching his pastor and receiving him to dinner
at his table." The evening of that day was spent in
edifying conversation, and closed with a French hymn, in
which all the household united. The following morning

He left Paris by carriage on Monday afternoon, travelled the whole of Tuesday
night, was fortunate enough to encounter no wolves, and reaching Calais on Wednesday
morning, sailed at noon with the prospect of a quick passage. The wind changed,
however, " and after tacking for some hours along the French coast, we came safely
to a mooring in Dover roads, at 8 o'clock in the evening."

330 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

he was introduced to two of the good women whose
humble ministry among the poor of their rude hill
villages had given rise to the scheme of Female
Associations. Here were Sophia Bernard and Catharine
Scheiddegger. Addressing them by name, Owen told them
that he had now known them for nearly fourteen years,
and that the account of their services, communicated by
the pastor whom they so greatly assisted, had stirred up the
zeal of many to labour after their example. "Oh, sir,"
said Sophia Bernard, as the tears sprang to her eyes,
"this does indeed humble us!" — a strange and beautiful
answer to fall from any lips, but wonderful in its lowliness
and grace on the lips of a poor peasant woman among the
wilds of the Vosges. Maria Schepler, the third of that
sisterhood, had been taken to her rest.

To his rest too had departed Henry Gottfried, the
pastor's dear son. In 1816, while making, at the expense
of the Society, a circuit of 1800 miles among the
Protestant Churches in the South of France for the
purpose of arranging a more adequate supply of the
Scriptures, he assisted in extinguishing a fire that had
broken out in the night in a town on his route. He
caught a severe cold, and consumption set in. On his
return to Alsace he remained some time at Rothau where
his brother Charles was both minister and doctor, but
when he found his malady left little hope of recovery, he
longed to return to his birthplace on the mountain. Twelve
of the hill-folk offered to carry him up on a litter ; but he
could not bear exposure to the keen air, and he was laid
in a covered cart, the kindly peasants going on in front
and removing every loose stone on the rough road. On
the i6th November 1817, without a struggle or a sigh, his
spirit passed to the better life.

"It was not without many an effort that I tore myself
away," writes Owen, "and hurried from Ban de la Roche,

1834] THE DEATH OF OBERLIN 331

that seat of simplicity, piety, and true Christian refinement."
The aged pastor, who from almost the beginning of the
Society had been a distributor of the Scriptures, and who
had extended his exertions far beyond the bounds of his
own jurisdiction, had still some years of usefulness before
him. In 1820 he was visited by Dr and Mrs Steinkopff and
the Rev. Francis Cunningham, of Pakefield, Suffolk ; in the
following year he received a grant of Bibles and Testa-
ments to the value of £70 for his depot. He was then
grown feeble with age, but though the end was drawing near
it came slowly. On Sunday, the 28th May 1826, in his eighty-
sixth year, he was seized with shiverings and faintings, and
three days later — on the ist June — the passing-bell was heard
among the hills. The pastor, the benefactor, the intimate
friend of over half a century was gone. He was buried near
his son in the little churchyard on the 5th, in clear sunshine,
after four days of rain. His clerical robes and his Bible
were laid on his coffin ; to his pall was affixed the decoration
of the Legion of Honour, awarded by Louis XVIII. "for
services rendered to an extensive population." In front
walked the oldest of his parishioners, bearing a cross to plant
on his grave. On the cross were inscribed the familiar
words "Papa Oberlin." That simple-hearted tribute was
the work of another good woman — Louisa Schepler, who
had entered his service as a young girl, when his wife was
still living ; who mothered the little children she left
behind ;

" And all for love, and nothing for reward,"

had remained for forty-two years his devoted housekeeper.
The people he loved came in crowds from the five hamlets ;
the school-children, who were the apple of his eye,
accompanied him to his last resting-place ; all round the
graveyard knelt in silent prayer groups of Roman Catholic
women in deep mourning.

332 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

Shortly after his return home, Mr Owen published Brief
Extracts from Letters on the Objects and Connexions of the British
and Foreign Bible Society; and in the course of 1819 he was
engaged on the third volume of his History of the Society.
The first two volumes, which closed with the celebration
of the tenth anniversary, had been published in 1816, with
a dedication to the President, Lord Teignmouth. The
third, which appeared in 1820, and was inscribed to Mr
Vansittart,1 who long afterwards as Lord Bexley became
the second President, carried the record of events up to the
fifteenth anniversary, an occasion rendered memorable by
three incidents — the presentation of the first copies of the
Turkish Testament, the assurance given of the goodwill
of the French Government, and the declaration of H.R.H.
the Duke of Gloucester, who, in acknowledging a vote of
thanks to himself and their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of
York, Kent, Cumberland, Sussex and Cambridge, said :
"I am satisfied that I am speaking the sentiments of my
illustrious relatives as well as my own, when I testify to you
our gratitude for your kindness to us, and express the
greatest anxiety and readiness to render the warmest
assistance — I say the warmest assistance — to this good, this
great, this glorious cause."

Mr Owen's History was a masterly achievement of a most
difficult task — a well-ordered, engrossing and trustworthy
narrative ; still aglow with the fervid spirit of the author,
and lacking little but that pictorial element of personality
which is so valuable after the lapse of a century, but which
could hardly be expected from one writing of the living men
in the very thick of events. In 1822 he issued Two Letters
on the Subject of the French Bible, in reply to a charge of
Socinianism brought against that particular version. These
productions of his ever-ready pen were among his last

1 Mr Vansittart had accepted the office of Vice- President at Lord Teignmouth's
earnest request.

1834] THE DEATH OF OWEN 333

labours on behalf of the institution which he loved with a
zeal as disinterested as it was indefatigable.

Notwithstanding the benefit derived from his continental
tour, his strength gradually declined, and he died at
Ramsgate on the 26th September 1822, at the comparatively
early age of fifty-six, leaving a widow and several children.
He was buried by the side of Granville Sharp in the church-
yard at Fulham, the curacy of which he had resigned in
1813, when Bishop Randolph required his residence in
the parish. At Park Chapel, Chelsea, where he had also
been minister, his funeral sermon was preached by his friend
the Rev. William Dealtry ; another appreciation of his
character and his services was pronounced by his colleague
Mr Hughes, at Dr Winter's Meeting House, New Court,
Carey Street ; nor were there wanting a Tribute of Gratitude
and an Ode to his memory. His loss was deeply felt by
the Society and by the Committee, who in a touching
memorial gave expression to their affection and to their
gratitude to God "for having so long granted the Society
the benefit of the zeal and talents of their beloved
associate."

After a long and anxious search a successor was found
in the Rev. Andrew Brandram, M.A., curate of Beckenham,
Kent, and late of Oriel College, Oxford ; and a resolution
was now adopted to attach to the post of Secretary, hitherto
gratuitously filled, a salary of ^300 a year — an amount,
it was frankly stated, which represented rather "an
economical attention to the finances of the Society than
compensation for services which no salary could adequately
remunerate."

Mr Owen's last days were darkened by the storm of
controversy which was now gathering over the Society.
When the institution was formed even the most sanguine
were unprepared for its sudden development. The rapid

334 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

adoption of its principles and the spread of its operations
abroad were neither anticipated nor provided for. The
knowledge of ecclesiastical affairs on the Continent was at
the best imperfect, and the character of the versions of the
Scriptures used by Protestants, Catholics, and the Greek
Church had not been the object of any particular attention.
In framing the constitution of the Society the founders had
very carefully guarded against the insertion of Notes or
Comments (and in the grants which the Committee bestowed
on foreign Auxiliaries that essential condition was constantly
kept in view) ; but as in this country there was no impedi-
ment to the omission of the Apocrypha, the possibility of
difficulties arising among the Churches abroad in regard to
these books never presented itself to the early Committees.

The uncanonical writings known as the Apocrypha
were at an early date interspersed in the Septuagint, in
what were regarded as their appropriate places, among
the inspired books of the Old Testament ; thence they
were transferred to the Vulgate ; and from these Greek
and Latin texts to the translations in various languages.
At the Reformation they were withdrawn from the
canonical Scriptures, and — prefaced, as a rule, with some
indication of their, true character — were placed by them-
selves in a distinct part of the volume. The Council of
Trent, however, declared the Apocrypha "sacred and
canonical," and entitled to the same veneration as the
rest of the Old Testament ; and although at first the pro-
logues and monitory notes of St Jerome were retained in
Roman Catholic Bibles, they gradually disappeared in sub-
sequent editions, and full effect was given to the Tridentine
pronouncement.

When therefore in the early years of the Society's
continental operations the Committee complied with the
urgent petition made for the Scriptures, it was only
natural that their liberal assistance should be employed by

THE DIFFICULTY ABROAD 335

the continental Auxiliaries in distributing them in the form
sanctioned by the Churches to which they belonged — in
the case of the Reformed Churches generally with the
Apocrypha included in the sacred volume in a place
apart ; in that of the Romish and Greek versions with
the uncanonical books interspersed, with or without any
mark of differentiation, among the inspired writings of the
Canon. And it is as well to observe that it was only in
regard to foreign Churches, and then only in respect of
versions in which the Apocrypha already existed, that this
question arose ; at no time was the idea entertained of
introducing the Apocrypha into the new translations
initiated, adopted, or assisted by the Society.

In the first instance it does not appear that in assisting
foreign societies any stipulation or indeed any reference
was made by the Committee with respect to the un-
canonical books, but when the Bible began to appear
without the Apocrypha, or when proposals were made for
editions in which it should be excluded, great uneasiness
began to be felt by the foreign Auxiliaries. Popular
prejudice looked askance at the " imperfect" versions, and
ecclesiastical jealousy resented any " tampering with
recognised standards." As early as 1812 an attempt was
made by the Committee to induce the foreign Auxiliaries
to take the same view of the Apocrypha as had been
adopted in practice by the Bible Society. Earnest
remonstrances were submitted by the Auxiliaries at
Berlin, Stockholm, St Petersburg, and other centres of
activity, with the result that in June 1813 a resolution
was agreed to "that the manner of printing the Holy
Scriptures by Foreign Societies be left to their discretion,
provided they be printed without note or comment."

At that time the difficulty presented itself as a choice
of alternatives — either the Bible was to be distributed in
the traditional form sanctioned at the Reformation, or it

336 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

was not to be distributed at all. In adopting the only
alternative possible to men burning with zeal for the
spread of the Word of God among nations distracted by
infidelity and decimated by war, they yielded to what
appeared an irresistible necessity. Serious objections, how-
ever, were still raised by many members, and in 1820 the
subject was brought up for the review of the Committee.
On one side it was contended that the application of the
funds to the distribution of any addition to the Holy
Scriptures was a distinct violation of the paramount rule of
the Society ; on the other it was maintained that the term
"Holy Scriptures" extended to the " ecclesiastical Bible"
(which even in the Church of England included the
Apocrypha), and that where custom and familiarity led the
people to insist on the "ecclesiastical Bible" the con-
cession might lawfully be made ; others again hesitated as
to the wisdom of a decision which might dissolve the con-
nection with the foreign Auxiliaries, and perhaps arrest
for ever the great work which had been so conspicuously
begun. It seemed possible to devise an arrangement
which, at least in the case of the Reformed Churches,
could be carried out without difficulty. An illustration
was furnished by what had happened in Sweden, when
the popular dissatisfaction with the Bible printed without
the Apocrypha on the suggestion of Dr Paterson was so
emphatic that the Swedish Bible Society was obliged to
issue 10,000 copies of the uncanonical books.

For two years the subject was repeatedly discussed at
Earl Street, and in the hope of effecting a compromise
which would reconcile all parties, the following resolution
was adopted on the igth August 1822 :—

"That when grants shall be made to any of the Bible Societies in
connection with this Institution, which are accustomed to circulate the
Apocrypha, it be stated to such Societies, that the attention of the Committee
having been called to the fundamental Rule of the Society, as limiting the
application of its funds to the circulation of the Holy Scriptures ; and it

i834] RESOLUTIONS REJECTED 337

appearing that this view of the said Rule has been taken from the beginning
by the great body of its members ; the Committee, anxious on the one hand
to keep entire good faith with all the members of the Society, and, on the
other, to maintain unimpaired the friendly intercourse which it has had the
happiness so long to hold with Bible Societies which circulate books
esteemed Apocryphal in this country, request of those Societies that they
will appropriate all future grants which they may receive from the British
and Foreign Bible Society exclusively to the printing of the Books of the
Old and New Testament as generally received in this country ; such
Societies remaining at full liberty to apply their own funds in whatever way,
as to the printing and circulation of the Apocrypha, it may seem good to
them."

This solution of the difficulty proved by no means
satisfactory. It was considered wanting in explicitness,
and evasive in application ; notwithstanding the restricted
application of money grants, and a full assurance that the
condition would be respected, these grants, it was argued,
would in effect contribute to the circulation of the Apocrypha,
In December 1824, the question was again brought before
the Committee. The President, who was prevented by ill-
health from being present, drew up an impartial statement
of the arguments on both sides, and emphasised the fact
that the question must be decided by a reference to the
constitution, and that appeals to expediency could only
be admitted so far as they were not inconsistent with
their laws. On the 2Oth December the Committee passed
the following resolution : —

" That no pecuniary grant be made by the Committee of this Society for
the purpose of aiding the printing or publishing of any edition of the Bible,
in which the Apocrypha shall be mixed and interspersed with the Canonical
Books of the Holy Scriptures ; and that grants of money to Foreign
Societies, which are accustomed to publish Bibles containing the Apocrypha,
but separate and distinct from the Canonical Books, be made under an
express stipulation, and the assurance of the parties receiving the same, that
such grants shall be exclusively applied to printing and publishing the
Canonical Books only."

A year of harassing controversy followed. In February
1825, the Edinburgh Bible Society transmitted its "firm

VOL. I. Y

338 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

and respectful remonstrance," and the whole force of
Scottish Presbyterianism was ranged against the resolu-
tion. On the other hand a protest was lodged in March
by twenty-six distinguished members of the University of
Cambridge, who held the resolution to be "a violation
of one of the grand and fundamental principles of the
Society, namely, that of uniting in one common work
the efforts of all Christian communities," and that it
would "cut off some of the largest and most promising
branches of the Society's labours, by giving up, in some
quarters, the only way in which any part of the Word
of God can be circulated, and, in other quarters, the only
way in which the Old Testament can be circulated with
the New."1

Confronted with difficulties in all directions, the
Committee cleared the ground by rescinding the previous
resolutions ; but even more marked disapproval was bestowed
on their next effort at compromise, which made no reference

1 The following list of the names attached to this protest will suggest the
perplexity which must have beset the Committee when they found themselves
set to the task of shaping a course that would meet with the approval of either
party : —

J. Lamb, Master of Corpus Christ! College.

Samuel Lee, M.A., Professor of Arabic.

Frederic Thackeray, M. D. , Emanuel College.

W. Parish, B.D., Magdalene College, Jacksonian Professor.

A. Sedgwick, Trinity College, Woodwardian Professor.

C. Simeon, King's College.

G. King, M.A. , Prebendary of Ely.

James Scholefield, M.A. , Fellow of Trinity College, and Secretary of the Cambridge
Auxiliary.

Legh Richmond, M.A., Trinity College (Turvey, Bedfordshire).

W. Clark, M.A., Corpus Christi College.

W. Mandell, Fellow of Caius College.

H. P. Elliot, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College.

George Milman, M.A., St John's College.

J. Lodge, M.A., Magdalene College, Librarian of the University.

Baptist W. Noel, M.A., Trinity College.

T. P. Platt, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College.

G. E. Corrie, M.A. , Fellow and Tutor of Catherine Hall.

W. Twigg, M.A. , Trinity College.

Edward Edwards, M.A., Corpus Christi College (Lynn, Norfolk).

Samuel Hawkes, M.A. , Fellow of Trinity College.

Henry Venn, M.A. , Fellow of Queen's College.

H. J. Sperling, M.A. , Trinity College.

W. H. Markby, B.D., Corpus Christi College.

Samuel Carr, M.A., Fellow of Queen's College.

W. Cecil, M.A., Fellow of Magdalene College.

JH. Godfrey, D.D., President of Queen's College.

i834] A SPECIAL COMMITTEE 339

to money grants, and gave facilities for the addition of
the Apocrypha, namely, — " Not to print or circulate
the Apocryphal Books ; and at the same time to
use their best endeavours to aid the circulation of the
Inspired Volume in all foreign countries by grants of the
Canonical Books, in whole or in part, without interfering
with the future distribution of the same, whether with or
without the Apocryphal Books." Straightway the committee
of the Edinburgh Bible Society resolved to discontinue their
remittances till "friendly intercourse" should be renewed
"by a removal of the circumstances which led to its
interruption " ; and some few Auxiliaries in England and
Wales sent up remonstrances, while others asked for
explanations.

It was now unmistakably clear that no compromise
would satisfy the anti-Apocrypha party. If they were
to be conciliated, the uncanonical writings and the foreign
Auxiliaries which continued to distribute them must be
excluded from the operations of the Society. A Special
Committee of twenty-one members was appointed by the
Society to pronounce a final judgment on the question. It
consisted of the President, Lord Teignmouth ; five of the
Vice-Presidents, the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry (Dr
Ryder), Lord Bexley, Lord Calthorpe, Sir R. H. Inglis
and William Wilberforce ; six clerical members, the Rev.
J. W. Cunningham, William Dealtry, W. Orme, Josiah
Pratt, Charles Simeon, and D. Thorpe ; and six lay
members, Thomas Allan, J. Butterworth, Zachary Macaulay,
R. Phillips, R. Steven, J. Trueman ; and the three
Secretaries, the Revs. A. Brandram, Joseph Hughes, and
C. F. Steinkopff.

Lord Teignmouth was unable to attend the meeting,
which was held on the 3ist October, but he forwarded a
memorandum of his views, in which he pointed out that
according to the laws and regulations of the Society, its

340 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

"sole object" was "to encourage a wider circulation of
the Holy Scriptures," and it could not, consistently with
those laws, assist the publication by foreign societies of
Bibles containing the apocryphal books. "The decided
opposition which has been so extensively manifested to a
contrary practice," he proceeded, "affords the strongest
presumption that if a proposal had been made at the
meeting when the Society was instituted, for assisting the
circulation of Bibles containing the Apocrypha in com-
pliance with the usages or prejudices of foreign Churches,
it would have been met by a decided negative." Two
arguments he briefly noticed. To the first, that the
Apocrypha might be classed under the denomination of
"Scripture," he replied that till its divine inspiration had
been established it could not be admitted as a part of the
Holy Scriptures ; to the second, that the expression
" Authorised Version " in the laws and regulations
included the apocryphal books, he rejoined that such
an interpretation would justify the circulation of the
Apocrypha in our own versions — a course which had
never been attempted, and which would not be tolerated.
He urged the necessity for a final and positive decision : —
"We see and feeL the embarrassing consequences of a
vacillating conduct ; and though it must in fairness be
attributed to the influence of the most charitable and
conscientious motives, I feel at the same time the fullest
conviction that the glory of God and the salvation of men
will be best provided by adopting the opinion which I
have expressed." As for those continental Churches which
held the apocryphal books to be of equal authority with
the Sacred Canon, his trust was in prayer. "With respect
to individuals of the Reformed Churches on the Continent,
I should hope that on mature consideration and with proper
explanations, they will agree to receive Bibles without the
Apocrypha ; for a refusal would, in fact, amount to this —

1834] DECISION OF THE COMMITTEE 341

' We will not have the Word of God, because it has not
the word of man annexed to it."

After long and anxious deliberation the Special Com-
mittee gave effect to the President's views, and agreed on
a recommendation which was accepted on the 2ist November
at a meeting of the General Committee, attended by some
seventy members, and embodied in the following resolu-
tion : —

" That the funds of the Society be applied to the printing and circulation
of the Canonical Books of Scripture, to the exclusion of those Books
and parts of Books, which are usually termed Apocryphal ; and that all
copies printed, either entirely or in part, at the expense of the Society,
and whether such copies consist of the whole or of any one or more of
such Books, be invariably issued bound ; no other Books whatever being
bound with them : and further, that all money grants to Societies and
individuals be made only in conformity with the principle of this regulation."

"There was no debating," wrote Lord Teignmouth to
his son, "but there were some strong protests made. The
resolution was, however, carried by a majority of at least
four to one, . . . and I think that the opinion of the
country, as expressed in letters, remonstrances, and resolu-
tions, was nearly in the same proportion. Simeon, Parish,
our Secretary Brandram, and others were among the
dissentients ; as was poor Steinkopff, but with that Christian
firmness which are [?] his leading principles ; and I felt
for him ; for he felt deeply the probable consequences of
the resolution ; — and I love him in my heart. So the matter
is settled, with my full concurrence ; but not at rest, I
fear."1

Regulations were drawn up on the basis of the resolu-
tion, and adopted at the annual general meetings in 1826
and 1827.

" I. That the fundamental law of the Society, which limits its operations
1 Life of Lord Teignmouth, vol. ii. p. 462.

342 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

to the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, be fully and distinctly recognised
as excluding the circulation of the Apocrypha.

"II. That, in conformity to the previous Resolution, no pecuniary aid
can be granted to any Society circulating the Apocrypha ; nor, except
for the purpose of being applied in conformity to the said Resolution,
to any individual whatever.

"III. That in all cases in which grants, whether gratuitous or otherwise,
of the Holy Scriptures, either in whole or in part, shall be made to any
Society, the books be issued bound, and on the express condition that
they shall be distributed without alteration or addition."

In 1827 the following provision was added, and these
four rules have since been regularly printed in the
yearly reports as part of the fundamental laws of the
Society : —

" IV. That all grants of the Scriptures to Societies which circulate
the Apocrypha, be made under the express condition that they be sold
or distributed without alteration or addition ; and that the proceeds of
the sales of any such copies of the Scriptures be held at the disposal of
the British and Foreign Bible Society."

At the annual meeting on the 3rd May 1826, some
apprehension was felt that there might be a renewal of the
controversy, but all passed over quietly. By a great
physical exertion Lord Teignmouth was able to take the
chair as President. "Though I was really not in a state
to attend or to speak," he writes, " I went and took the
chair for two hours and a half; and then retired, being
succeeded by that good-natured man Lord Gambier, who
kindly undertook to relieve me. Lord Bexley, whom I had
pre-engaged, had a summons to a Privy Council, at which
His Majesty was present, and could not attend. Lord
Harrowby, and the Bishops of Lichfield and Salisbury
were present ; and the meeting, in point of rank, was most
respectable. . . . The resolutions respecting the Apocrypha
were introduced in the very beginning of the Report, as
bearing more particularly on the foreign Societies. They
were received with acclamations ; and if any disapprovers

i834] THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN SHORE 343

were present, they were silent — so that now I hope the
question is at rest."

What a solemn effect would have been produced on that
gathering in the Freemasons' Hall could they have seen
in the spirit what was then taking place far away in the
Vaucluse. "At eleven o'clock on the first Wednesday in
May, the day allotted to the anniversary meeting of the
Society — at the very instant, as it proved, at which Lord
Teignmouth appeared in his accustomed place, amidst the
acclamation of the members, — by a coincidence wholly
unforeseen, the coffin containing his son's remains was
received by the appointed bearers at the gate of Lourmarin."1
Captain the Hon. Henry Dundas Shore, in his twenty-sixth
year, had gone to the South of France in the hope of restoring
a constitution shattered by the climate of India, and had
died at the hamlet of Pont Royal, between Aix and Avignon,
in a little inn kept by a Protestant family. On the other
side of the river Durance there was a colony of the same
faith, descended from the Albigenses. The pastor of
Lourmarin readily granted permission for a grave in their
cemetery ; the municipal authorities and the members of
the local Bible Society desired to do honour to the dead ;
and the military, on hearing that the President's son had
borne a commission in the British service, were anxious to
show their respect to a brother-in-arms. The pall was borne
by officers of the French Army ; volleys from the carbines
of the gendarmerie indicated the progress of the funeral
procession as it passed along the crowded streets, and a
farewell salute was fired over the grave. "We are all
members of a small Bible Society," wrote the good pastor
of Lourmarin. "Some of us have read the history of the
British and Foreign Bible Society2 by the Rev. and good
Mr Owen. Your lordship is well known to us. We all

1 Life of Lord Teigmiioitth, vol. ii. pp. 484-8.

- A French translation had been published in 1820,

344 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

know what good has been done by your influence to
religion in the East Indies ; and what generous and
truly pious endeavours you have done, and are still
doing, for the promotion of the sacred Scriptures through
the world."

In England the resolution of November 1825, which
on its adoption had been extensively circulated, met with
general acceptance as a settlement of the question, and many
Auxiliaries sent in resolutions of acquiescence and assurance
of confidence and goodwill. It was far otherwise in Scotland.
" If credit is to be given to our enemies," wrote the
President, "the Committee and myself are little better than
Socinians and Deists, squanderers of the funds entrusted
to our charge, and undeserving of the public confidence.
. . . We are preparing for the satisfaction and information
of our friends, some of whom have been staggered by the
violence of the accusations against us, a statement of facts,
and I have no fears that it will not produce a favourable
impression. Yes, I do feel a confidence that the gracious
God, who first inspired, and has protected and enlarged our
noble institution, will not suffer it to be overwhelmed and
destroyed." The concessions, which in the confused state
of opinion the Committee thought might lawfully be made
to ancient ecclesiastical usages abroad, were distorted into
deliberate violations of the constitution and a "tampering
with the Canon of inspired Scripture"; and the new
regulations were declared evasive or capable of evasion. A
distrust of the Society's whole administration was sedulously
fomented ; the general management of the funds was
impugned ; and the agencies of Professor Kieffer at Paris
and Dr Leander Van Ess at Darmstadt, the revision of the
text of the Lausanne Bible published in 1822, and the
insertion in one edition of the Bible published at Strasburg
of a preface which on the demand of the London Committee
had been at once withdrawn and the expenses connected with

1834] THE SCOTTISH SECESSION 345

it refunded, were subjected to unrestrained and often ill-
informed censure.

A deputation from Earl Street was sent to confer with
the Northern Auxiliaries ; the President in a letter to the
Presbytery of Glasgow reviewed and justified the course
which had been pursued ; but these attempts to restore
the old spirit of mutual co-operation and consideration
were fruitless. Scotland demanded such a change in the
executive, both at home and abroad, as would exclude
from the service of the Society all who had taken part in
its later proceedings, or who were supposed to have been
favourable to the circulation of the Apocrypha. For a
moment, indeed, it appeared as though this startling
demand would be complied with by men, some of whom
were overborne with illness, and all depressed by worry
and that heartache which comes of worthy motives mis-
interpreted and zealous toil misrepresented. Lord Teign-
mouth, who was from home, was induced by a deputation
of the Committee to assent to its members resigning and
leaving their re-election in the hands of the sub-
scribers. Happily Lord Bexley, who was on the spot
and realised the inconveniences of such a step, prevented
the matter from going further. The result was the
secession, with few exceptions, of the Auxiliary Societies in
Scotland.

A more detailed balance-sheet was, however, adopted
by the Committee ; specimens of the accounts of Professor
Kieffer and Dr Van Ess, and the minutes of the Committee
with respect to the Lausanne Bible and the Geneva preface,
were published. These were considered a sufficient answer
to specific charges, and with these the official defence of
the Society closed. But the war of pamphlets did not
cease ; on the contrary in certain quarters the controversy
was continued with an acrimony and a personality
altogether unworthy of a Christian cause. " Dr Andrew

346 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

Thomson, the Northern champion of the anti-Apocrypha
party, now seemed bent on pushing his aggressive
measures to the extinction of the Society itself. The
pages of his Christian Instructor, a periodical previously
dedicated to the general promotion of religious truth, was
now appropriated exclusively to topics connected with the
Biblical discussions."1 Whatever the ultimate purpose
of his hostility, the temper in which he wrote was little
calculated to improve the management of the institution,
or to further the work of evangelisation in which it was
engaged. Candour and charity could hardly be expected
of an antagonist who perceived in the constitution of the
Society, its associates and correspondents, "a monster
more uncouth than the fever-parched wretch beholds
when, in restless slumbers, he sinks from woe to woe on
the bed of sickness." His very violence,2 however, may
have helped the reaction among old friends of the Society,
who, though alienated or irresolute for a time, were after-
wards ranged amongst its warmest supporters. On the
i4th June 1827, a meeting of such friends was held at
Edinburgh, and twenty-seven ministers, and other gentle-
men of position, were appointed a "Committee of Corre-
spondence " with the Society. The resolutions they passed,
expressing their satisfaction with the regulations of 1826
and 1827, and "their entire confidence in the integrity
and uprightness of the men whose office it was to carry
those resolutions into effect," were published, and they

1 Life of Lord Teignmouth, vol. ii. p. 500.

2 " Thomson's violence," wrote Lord Teignmouth, in a letter to his son — and it
was perhaps the hardest thing that gentle spirit ever uttered in the course of a
long life — "reminds me of the following remark and admonition, in the words of the
memorable J. Hales : ' St Chrysostom excellently observeth, that the Prophets of
God and Satan were by this notoriously differenced, that they which gave oracles by
motion of the devil did it with much impatience and confusion, with a kind of fury
and madness ; but they which gave oracles from God by divine inspiration gave them
with all mildness and temper. If it be the cause of God which we handle in our
writings, then let us handle it, like the Prophets of God, with quietness and modera-
tion, and not with the violence of passion, as if we were possessed rather than in-
spired.'"— Life of Lord Teignmouth, vol. ii. p. 518.

i»34] THE WORK DONE IN SCOTLAND 347

issued a statement vindicating their conduct in resuming
a friendly intercourse with the Society.

Reverting to the eight years previous to this unhappy
rupture, it is desirable to give some brief indication of the
work done in Scotland, and the position of the principal
Northern Bible Societies.

In 1823 the Edinburgh Society had affiliated 76
Auxiliaries, and was in a position to transmit to London
^1150 in free contributions. The Glasgow Society had
grouped around it 50 Branches and Associations. Since
its establishment in 1813, it had distributed 18,438 Bibles
and Testaments, and its receipts had amounted to ,£14,450,
of which more that ^7000 had been derived from its
auxiliary organisations. As the result of a visit from Mr
Dudley in that year, a Ladies' Branch Society had been
formed, with eighteen Ladies' Associations. In a popula-
tion exceeding 160,000 the ladies found that only two
families were entirely destitute of the Holy Scriptures,
while from the remarkable ratio which, both in Glasgow
and Edinburgh, the free contributions bore to the subscrip-
tions for Bibles, it was manifest that an abundant supply
of the Word of God must have been scattered throughout
the southern parts of Scotland. In the Highlands, how-
ever, there was still a great dearth, and the Committee
had delegated to the Edinburgh Society the super-
intendence of two editions (5000 copies each) of the Gaelic
version — one of the Bible, the other of the New
Testament.

In the following year the King's Printers in Scotland
obtained an interdict against the importation of copies of
the Authorised Version printed in England. The Scottish
Auxiliaries were thrown upon their own resources, and
this measure materially diminished the sales of the Earl
Street Depository.

From the beginning the contributions from Scotland

348 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-

had been marked by their liberality. For fifteen years,
between 181011 and the secession, the Presbytery of
Glasgow made a yearly collection within its jurisdiction.
During the period of which we are writing it contributed
in the aggregate ^"5062, an average of ^630 a year. This
generous assistance ceased with the year 1824-5.

The total support received from the Scottish Auxiliaries
from 1817-18 up to the secession was ;£ 50,401, an average
of ^5600 a year. During the first four years of that period
the aggregate was ,£25,487, but no distinction is shown in
the accounts between the free contributions and the amount
for Bibles. In the remaining five years the aggregate
was ,£24,914, of which £20,685 were free subscriptions.
In 1825, the crucial year of the controversy, the free con-
tributions dropped to .£1740; in 1826 they had fallen to
,£235. Efforts were made to retrieve some of the lost
ground ; new Auxiliaries were formed at Glasgow,
Aberdeen, Inverness, and for the counties of Stirling,
Fife and Elgin ; the Edinburgh Committee of Correspond-
ence resolved itself into a regular Auxiliary in 1828, and a
depot was opened for the supply of the Scriptures in English,
Welsh, Irish, Gaelic, French, German, and some other
foreign tongues ; but, as has already been pointed out,1 the
manner in which the two great Scottish societies in particu-
lar had grouped the Lowlands about them in Auxiliaries,
Branches, and Associations, left scant room for fresh
exertions. From the secession down to 1834 the free con-
tributions received from these new organisations amounted
to ^4473-

If Scotland withdrew its support from the Bible Society,
the Bible Society did not relax in its goodwill and care
for Scotland. Prior to the secession, the poor of the
Highlands had been the object of its special solicitude.
Thus in 1824 it had granted 1000 Gaelic Bibles to the

1 See chap. vi. pp. 96-98.

1834] THE DEARTH IN THE HIGHLANDS 349

Gaelic School Society, 1000 Bibles and 1000 Testaments
to the Society for Educating the Poor in the Highlands,
750 Gaelic Bibles to the proprietor of The Lews, who
had offered to purchase 750 more at cost price, 100 to the
kelp-making disc of sand known as Benbecula ; and it
was resolved to offer the Scriptures in the Highlands,
through the local ministers, at extremely reduced prices.
Down to the secession the Committee had voted Scriptures,
chiefly in Gaelic, to the value of ^2137, and the sum
included ,£332 for the accommodation of Roman Catholics.
From the secession onward to 1834 the grants amounted to
,£3808, including ^104 for Roman Catholics. In 1826 the
Inverness Society for the Education of the Poor in the
Highlands reported that in the western parts of Inverness
and Ross there was only one Bible for every eight persons
above the age of eight, while in other parts of the Highlands
and Islands, including Orkney and Shetland, where reading
was very general, there was one copy for every three.
One fourth of all the families in these districts — 100,000
souls — still possessed no copy of the Scriptures. In the
following year the secretary of the Inverness-shire Bible
Society confirmed this account of the dearth in these
regions, and added that in some parts, particularly in the
Hebrides and on the shores of the Highlands, an almost
inconceivable poverty prevailed: — "In some parishes there
is indeed no money whatever in circulation ; multitudes
pay the small rents exacted for their sterile patches by
assisting in the manufacture of kelp, while their sustenance
for part of the year is frequently sea-weed and shell-fish."
In consequence of this deplorable condition of the people
7400 Gaelic Bibles and 1500 Testaments were voted by
the Committee for distribution by the Inverness Auxiliary,
the Gaelic School Society, and other organisations.

As time passed by, the bitterness of the prolonged
controversy was gradually allayed, but from the date of

350 THE APOCRYPHA CONTROVERSY [1817-1834

the schism the Bible work of Scotland was carried on
independently, and the original relations between the
Northern Bible Societies and the parent institution were
never restored.1

1 At the Jubilee of the Society the Duke of Argyll, as President of the Scottish
Bible Society, attended the meeting in Exeter Hall on the 8th March 1853.
Referring to bygone differences, he said that the two Societies had long been in a
position of earnest co-operation, and his own presence on that occasion was as much
due to personal feeling and affection as to his official character. It was not till 1861,
however, that all the Bible Societies north of the Border combined to form the
National Bible Society of Scotland.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE TESTS CONTROVERSY

WE must now touch on various matters which, for the
sake of clearness and continuity, were omitted in the
preceding chapter.

In process of time it became more and more evident to
the Executive that the real strength of the Auxiliary system
was centred in the Associations, and that the Associations
were growing, year by year, more dependent on the
exertions of the women-workers.1 The effect, too, of the
presence of the Secretaries, or of members of the Society,
or representatives of the Committee at the meetings of
Branches, Auxiliaries, and Associations was too conspicuous
to be mistaken. The real difficulty was to devise means
for taking advantage of this natural opportunity. The
Secretaries, who had already as much clerical and adminis-
trative work to attend to as they could well execute, were
unable to be everywhere, and although many members
of the Committee readily gave their assistance, it was
obvious that some regular plan of representation should be
arranged.

How much could be done in the way of stimulation by

1 There is one point in connection with the Society's work to which, though
it need not be emphasised, reference should be made. " It has been repeatedly
asserted," writes one of the home agents, in 1832, "that a Bible Society always
produces other charitable societies in the place where it is established. This
remark, which has been almost universally verified, is not without confirmation at
Keighley. The ladies of the Bible Society distributed among the poor 940
blankets the year before last at reduced prices, and in the last year they carried
on a clothing society, by which above 1000 articles of clothing were either given
or sold in this town and neighbourhood."

352 THE TESTS CONTROVERSY [1817-

a single person was shown by Mr Dudley as early as
1817-18. In that year he travelled 4500 miles, and
attended 107 Auxiliary committee meetings and 128 general
meetings, at 59 of which new organisations were established.
A reverse in business, however, compelled him to discontinue
his gratuitous labours, but happily the Society was able
shortly afterwards to secure his services as the first paid
"accredited home agent." Thenceforward, notwithstanding
the distress and the political agitation to which we have
referred, new areas were steadily brought within the range
of the Society's operations. In 1823-4, 5 new Auxiliaries,
22 Branches, 2 Ladies' Branches, 35 Bible Associations,
and 60 Ladies' Bible Associations — in all 124 new institutions
— were added to the roll. In 1825-6 the accessions numbered
56 ; in 1827-8 there were 50 ; and convincing evidence was
produced in justification of the observation of the Committee,
that in those places in Great Britain where the Bible
Associations had not been brought into operation, a con-
siderable dearth of the Scriptures generally prevailed.
In Birmingham and the neighbourhood the local Ladies'
Associations had found that as many as 2000 families had
neither Bible nor Testament. In Wiltshire, within ten
miles of a market town, an inquiry in 18 villages showed
that 500 families were destitute of the Word of Life. In
the area of another Association, the collectors of one district
occupied by 80 families found 70 of them without a copy
of the Scriptures.

An illustration was also afforded of the searching and
fruitful character of Mr Dudley's method in the account
of a district which comprised about 36 villages and a
population of 13,800, almost exclusively agricultural. "Of
these only thirteen persons were subscribers to the Bible
Society previous to 1825, and the aggregate amount of
their contributions never exceeded ten guineas. The
Branch society and its six Associations have now existed

7' '/• '//' /

,; '>../. . / f,s // /.;

i834] DISTRICT AGENTS APPOINTED 353

two years ; the total number of subscribers exceeds 2400,
of whom more than 800 are free contributors ; and the
amount collected exceeds ;£86o, of which ^334 has been
remitted as free contributions in aid of the parent Society.
More than 1200 Bibles and Testaments have been distributed,
and in no instance has it been found necessary to deliver
a copy before the cost price was paid."

In these circumstances the Committee considered them-
selves justified in appointing a second agent — Mr W.
Brackenbury — for the work was more than one man could
compass, even with the help of such volunteers as the
Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, the Rev. T. Thomason, on
furlough from Calcutta, and James Montgomery, the poet.
In the following year a third agent was needed, and Mr
William Acworth, of Queen's College, Cambridge, was
appointed. Messrs Dudley and Brackenbury had attended,
together or separately, 65 meetings ; and 121 new Auxiliaries
and Associations had been formed. In 1829-30, 133 more
societies were added to the list.

At this point we have some light thrown on the condition
of Wales. Neither in the confusion of controversy nor in
the pressure of multifarious transactions had the Principality
been overlooked. It was visited by the agents and one
of the Secretaries. In compliance with earnest requests a
new edition of the Welsh version with marginal references
had been published ; pocket Bibles and Testaments had
been provided ; and a reduction in price had been made
to meet the necessities of the people. Incredulity has
often been expressed as to the Scripturally destitute condition
of Wales at the time the Bible Society was formed. In
1829-30, Mr Dudley, describing the results of the systematic
personal inquiry by the committees of six newly formed
organisations in South Wales, shows how much there was
still to do even after the large distributions of fifteen years.
Of 4447 families visited, 1276 — over a fourth — were found
VOL. I, 7.

354 THE TESTS CONTROVERSY [1817-

totally unprovided, and beyond these there were many who
had only imperfect or mutilated copies of the Scriptures. At
the same time the people were willing to assist in supplying
their own needs. The receipts of five of these organisations
amounted to ,£1361, and they had issued 4395 Bibles and
Testaments. The aggregate number of subscribers to the
Auxiliaries and their nine Associations exceeded 7000.

In 1829-30 the Society was supported by 2349 organisa-
tions— 274 Auxiliaries, 403 Branches, and 1672 Associations
(of which 600 were conducted by ladies) — compared with
249 Auxiliaries, 372 Branches, and 1445 Associations — a
total of 2066 — a year after the Scottish secession ; and the
total net receipts, which had fallen to ,£80,200 in '27 and
to ,£78,900 in '28, now amounted to ,£85,000.

Whether the repeal of the Test Acts in 1828 had excited
anxiety and suspicion in the minds of religious people
connected with the Bible Society it would be difficult to
say, but apparently about this time the Society was
threatened with the approach of another storm of con-
troversy, scarcely less violent than that which was now
dying away.1 It was not till the autumn of 1830, however,
that this new subject of agitation was formally brought
to the notice of the Committee. In September the Guernsey
Auxiliary passed a resolution, which was transmitted to
Earl Street, declaring that their members, "deeply im-
pressed with the necessity of a simple dependence on
the divine blessing, to be derived only through the Lord
Jesus Christ, both God and man, pledge themselves to
discountenance all union with Socinians ; and to promote,
to the best of their power, this most desirable object
among all other Branch Societies, they earnestly recommend
to the parent Society totally to withdraw from those who
deny the divinity of our Lord." A similar resolution was

1 See Life of Lord Teignmouth, vol. ii. p. 519, for his answer to a letter from the
Rev. G. Greatbatch recommending the opening of meetings with prayer.

i834l THE BASIS OF UNION 355

sent by the Rugby Auxiliary, and a third was received
from Derby advocating the introduction of prayer at all
meetings of the Society.

It was understood that this ill-advised proposal to
destroy the catholicity of the institution would be projected
into the regular proceedings of the approaching anniversary
meeting, and statements were published, less in the hope
of averting discussion than to prepare members to discount
it. Under the signature " Sexagenarius " Mr Hughes
issued Two Letters, addressed to Lord Teignmouth, on the
subject of Prayer and Religious Tests ; and an address
signed in their individual capacity by the President, a
number of the Vice - Presidents, including the Bishops
of Winchester (Charles R. Sumner), Chester (John Bird
Sumner), and Lichfield (Ryder), Lord Bexley and Mr
Wilberforce, and by the Treasurer, Secretaries, and thirty-
two members of Committee, was widely circulated. The
signatories frankly stated that they objected to the proposed
alteration "of the fundamental principle of the Society,
which admits of the co-operation of all persons willing
to assist in the circulation of the Holy Scriptures." With
respect to the introduction of a Test which would operate
to the exclusion of any particular class of persons, they
believed that "the sound principles of Christian faith, as
well as Christian charity, are more likely to be promoted
by an adherence to our present constitution than by any
change which would occasion a breach in the Society."
On the subject of prayer, the Bible Society, by its
constitution, united persons of different religious opinions
in one object, for the furtherance of which they might all
co-operate without any compromise of individual principles.
"No arrangement has yet been suggested," the address
went on, "which appears to us generally practicable, or
which would not demand such a compromise on the part
of some of our members ; and we cannot venture to

356 THE TESTS CONTROVERSY [1817-

recommend the adoption of a measure which might force
any friends of the Society to the alternative of either
retiring from it, or of appearing to sacrifice that consistency
on which peace of mind and usefulness so materially
depend." The tone which pervaded its reports and the
sentiments which had animated its proceedings, it was
added, made it manifest that the Society distinctly professed
to look up to the favour of the Most High, and to ascribe
its success wholly to His blessing. Friends who took
other views than these were entreated to weigh against
their private sentiments the danger of dividing, if not
dissolving, a Society, which, as it was then constituted,
had been honoured with such evident testimonies of the
blessing of Almighty God.

On the 4th May 1831, the anniversary meeting was
held, for the first time, in Exeter Hall, which had just
been erected, and for the first time in the history of the
Society ladies were admitted to its gatherings. There
was an unusually large attendance. Lord Bexley took
the chair. Lord Teignmouth was prevented by illness
and the infirmities of age from being present, and he was
never again to preside at these memorable gatherings. He
sent a letter in which he expressed his hope and prayer
that the proceedings of the day would close in the deepest
feelings of gratitude to God and of expanded charity
towards their fellow-men. "The basis of our union,"
he wrote, "is the acknowledgment of the divine authority
of the Holy Scriptures ; and the simple object of our
institution is to promote the circulation of them in the
widest possible extent. It does not assume the authority
of interpreting them ; nor does it impose any test for the
admission of its members."

No bishops were present ; the President had concurred
in their view that they should hold aloof from the
impending struggle.

i834l CONFLICTING VIEWS 357

In the fore-front of the annual report reference was
made to the two issues which were uppermost in the
minds of the crowded meeting. With regard to the
introduction of oral prayer into the deliberations of the
Committee and the public meetings of the Society, and the
recommendation of the practice to the Auxiliaries generally,
it was stated : —

" Your Committee have never recorded their sentiments on this subject
in the form of a resolution, but they may now state, as their almost
unanimous judgment, that, viewing the peculiar constitution of the Society,
they cannot advise the adoption of the measure.

"When the second point, namely a modification of the fundamental

laws of the Society with regard to qualifications for membership, was first

brought under the notice of your Committee during the past year by

two Auxiliaries (one of some years' standing, the other but just formed),

they felt it their duty to record a resolution to the following effect, viz. : —

' That this Committee, feeling that it is their duty not only to confine

themselves to the prosecution of the exclusive object of the British

and Foreign Bible Society, but also to uphold the simplicity of

its constitution, under which the contributions and assistance of

all persons, without respect to religious distinctions, are admissible,

earnestly, respectfully, and affectionately entreat the Committees of

the Societies in question to reconsider the resolutions passed at

their late meetings, with a view to their returning or conforming to

the established principles of this Society.'

" To the opinions thus expressed your Committee (with two exceptions)
continue to adhere ; and they are at liberty to state that in that opinion they
have the concurrence of your President and many of the Vice-Presidents,
together with that of the Committees of several important Auxiliaries, who
have addressed them on the subject."

An abstract of the report was read, and the Rev.
Dr William Dealtry, now Chancellor of the Diocese of
Winchester, moved its adoption.

Captain J. E. Gordon moved as an amendment :—

" That the British and Foreign Bible Society is pre-eminently a religious
and Christian Institution ; that no person rejecting the doctrine of a triune
Jehovah can be considered a member of a Christian Institution ; that in
conformity with this principle, the expression 'denominations of Christians '
in the Ninth General Law of the Society, be distinctly understood to include

358 THE TESTS CONTROVERSY [1817-

such denominations of Christians only as profess their belief in the doctrine
of the Holy Trinity."

Another amendment, restricting the test to the Com-
mittee and executive of the Society, was moved by the Rev.
Lundy Foot : —

"That the words of the Ninth Law, and of the others which prescribe
the terms of admission to the agency of the Society, be not taken to extend
to those who deny the divinity and atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Captain Gordon's speech, which was long and dis-
cursive, was so frequently interrupted that the chairman,
who could not make himself heard in the distant parts of
the hall, desired the Rev. Daniel Wilson1 to request that
there should be neither approbation nor dissent to interrupt
the calm, deliberate and Christian spirit in which such a
discussion should be conducted. When Captain Gordon
had exhausted the patience of the meeting the venerable
Rowland Hill, then in his eighty-seventh year, rebuked
the unseemly display of party spirit ; expressed the wish
that all the Roman Catholics and all the Socinians in the
world belonged to Bible Societies, for there they would
find the truth to convince them of their errors ; and with
a final reference to the disorder and noise, abruptly left
the hall. Amid much excitement Mr Lundy Foot's
amendment was seconded by the Hon. and Rev. Baptist
Noel ; Captain Gordon's by the Rev. G. W. Phillips. Mr
Howell, the remarkable preacher of Long Acre Chapel,
rose to support the more rigorous of the proposals, ' ' but
the reverend gentleman having remained for some time
in a supplicating attitude, resting on one knee, fold-
ing his hands over his breast, relinquished his in-

1 About this time much interest was taken in the Society by Daniel Wilson, who
began in 1809 his ministry at Cecil's old chapel at St John's, Bedford Row, became
vicar of Islington in 1824, and soon rose to a commanding position among the London
Evangelicals, with a large following of Nonconformists as well as of Church people.
In 1832 he was elevated to the metropolitan see of Calcutta.

THE EXETER HALL MEETING 359

effectual attempt to propitiate the tumultuous audience."1
Even the eloquent Dealtry, listened to for a little while,
was subjected to frequent interruptions. In the course of
his arguments he contended that, in the sense in which
the expression was used in the first amendment, the Bible
Society was not a "religious institution," and that view
was enforced in a few quiet but effective sentences by Mr
Luke Howard, a member of the Society of Friends and
one of the trustees. "I hold your property," he said "on
a certain understanding. I hold it on a certain condition,
which I do believe would be violated were this amendment
carried — by this change of the constitution of the Society.
You may alter your laws, but I cannot alter my trust.
I cannot alter my engagements : if I do I may be exposed
to proceedings in Chancery, which might be very
awkward." The Society was not a religious body. "It
is a society for furnishing the means of religion, but not
a religious society. In the Society of Friends we do not
own Socinians ; but then we are a religious society. I
have myself taken some pains to exclude Socinians from
these ; but had we been engaged only in circulating the
Scriptures, we should not have felt it needful to exclude
them. The moment you establish a Test I will leave you ;
but I will still act as trustee, according to the law under
which I was so appointed."

The amendments were then put and negatived, and
the original motion — the adoption of the report — was carried,
on a show of hands, by a majority of about six to one.

An ineffectual attempt was afterwards made to re-open
the question by the Test party, but as the Committee adhered
to the wise precedent of abstaining officially from contro-
versy, an appeal was issued by the party to the members
of the Society and to the Auxiliaries and Associations,

1 Life of Lord Teignmmith, vol. ii. p. 547. A good account of the proceedings,
together with the speeches, appears in the Monthly Extracts, 3ist May 1831, but this
grotesque incident is not referred to.

360 THE TESTS CONTROVERSY [1817-

and numerous letters and pamphlets were published.
Although the decision at the anniversary meeting was
confined to the adoption of a report which, so far as the
points in controversy were concerned, restricted itself to
the maintenance of "the established principles of the
Society," it was industriously given out that the meeting
had pronounced against the practice of prayer and in
favour of Socinians being regarded as Christians. Friends
were not slow to defend, on their own responsibility,
the cause of the institution. Indeed the number of
apologists was larger than on any previous occasion, and
the expenses of publication, defrayed by private con-
tributions, exceeded ^"1000. The Auxiliaries, too, made
it clear that they desired no change in the law of member-
ship. Of 280 representations received by the Committee,
only 1 8 recommended a reconsideration of the subject.

Seeing no prospect of effecting their object, the
advocates of the Test amendments assembled in Exeter
Hall on the 7th December 1831 ; and, under the title of
the Trinitarian Bible Society, a new institution was formed,
the members of which should "consist of Protestants, who
acknowledge their belief in the Godhead of the Father, of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, three co-equal and co-
eternal persons in one living and true God."

"The trial, at the time," writes the second historian of
the Bible Society, "was very great. It was grievous to
its conductors and managers to have their motives
impugned, their doings misrepresented, and their loyalty
to the great Head of the Church brought under imputa-
tion and suspicion. It was especially grievous to see the
Society deserted by some of its best and warmest and
holiest friends — for such they were — who, for a time at
least, withdrew their countenance and active aid, even
though they did not all join the [Trinitarian] Society."1

Browne, 7'/i£ History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, vol. i. p. 134.

i834] GERARD AND BAPTIST NOEL 361

Among the able and honoured friends whom the Society
thus lost was Mr Thomas Pell Platt, Fellow of Trinity
College, Cambridge, who for eight years had held the
honorary office of Librarian. It was he who had replied
with knowledge and moderation to Southey's misleading
and injurious attack in the Quarterly Review (June I827)1
on several of the versions prepared at the instance of the
Society, or published with its assistance. Among his
many other services must be mentioned the laborious
work in twelve folio MS. volumes, in which he compiled
"An account of all the Translations circulated by the
Society, stating the reasons which led to their adoption,
or the history of the translating and editing of those which
were new and revised versions."

But if some valued workers were lost, others were the
more firmly attached. At the next anniversary meeting
— one of the most harmonious and enthusiastic ever
recorded in the annals of the Society — the Hon. and
Rev. Gerard Noel, who for a time had been in opposition,
and the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, who had seconded
one of the Test amendments, now stood together on the
platform, while the elder made in their joint names a
frank and affecting retractation of the errors into which,
he confessed, they had fallen, and the injustice they had
done the Society. They took their places once more
amongst its friends and advocates, pledged, "as long as
they had a voice to use and an arm to lift in its defence,
to assist it in its benevolent designs."

In the meantime the ordinary work of the Society
had been carried on with unabated energy. In 1830 as
many as 164 new Auxiliaries and Associations had been

1 In 1829, in his Progress and Prospects of Society, vol. ii. p. 79, Southey wrote
of the Society : " I admit that weakness, rashness, enthusiasm, fanaticism, have been
brought by it into action and into full display. . . . But in all great movements
there has ever been this mixture of men and motives ; and with all drawbacks for this,
all allowances for misdirected and wasted exertions, certain it is that there has been
a great and good object in view, and that a mighty and holy work is in progress.'

362 THE TESTS CONTROVERSY [1817-

established ; in 1831 more than 130 were added, and the
issues of the Scriptures amounted to 583,888 copies — the
largest number distributed in one year since the foundation
of the institution.

In the autumn of 1831 England was smitten by that
terrible visitation of the Cholera which carried off 53,000
of the population in that and the following year. It had
reached Russia in 1830, swept with appalling mortality
over Germany in 1831, and appeared at Sunderland
on the 26th October, at Edinburgh on the 6th February
1832, in the shipping districts of London on the i3th,
and in Dublin on the 3rd March. In anticipation of
the epidemic, 19,537 copies of the New Testament
bound up with the Psalms were distributed on loan,
through the Auxiliaries, to as many destitute families in
London and the neighbourhood ; in Manchester, 14,000
families were visited, and though the local Auxiliary had
already distributed 100,000 copies, 4000 families were
found without the Scriptures ; in Edinburgh 2000, and in
Glasgow 3000 copies were supplied. In all, 30,865 copies
of the New Testament and Psalms were distributed between
1831 and 1833 in various parts of the kingdom, at a
cost of ^3094. While meetings of a few Auxiliaries and
Associations were suspended through the prevalence or
the dread of cholera, the agents did not shrink from en-
gagements which took them to places where the disease
existed. They were "graciously preserved in all their
journeyings."

One distinguished and attached friend fell a victim to
the plague — the Rev. Dr Adam Clarke, then in his
seventieth year, the great Wesleyan leader who had
rendered valuable literary assistance to the Society in its
earlier transactions, and whose Commentary and other theo-
logical works preserve the memory of his piety, industry,
and profound Oriental scholarship. In the late summer of

i»34] FOUR DISTRICT SECRETARIES 363

1832 his heart was almost broken by tidings of a frightful
gale in which thirty fishing-boats and over a hundred and
fifty of his beloved Shetlanders had perished. He hastened
home from the West of England, and in his shattered
health easily succumbed to the scourge which was sweeping
the land.1

Even in this dark year 1 18 new organisations were formed,
and it was found necessary to engage the services of the
Rev. Thomas Brooke, rector of Westaston, Cheshire, as
a fourth home agent. The funds of the Society had,
however, shown a diminution of ^6000, chiefly under the
head of legacies, annual subscriptions and free contributions,
compared with the previous year ; and though it was
recognised that in the circumstances of the time there was
cause for gratitude and astonishment that the diminution
had not been far greater, attention was earnestly directed
to the subject. A concentrated effort was made during
the next twelve months. As many as 753 meetings were
attended by the Secretaries, agents, and representatives of the
Society ; 13 Auxiliaries, 10 Branches, and 154 Associations
were founded ; special collections were made by congrega-
tions and institutions ; and at the anniversary meeting in
1834 the Committee were able to report that the receipts
had risen to ,£83,897, giving an excess of ^8400 over
those of the preceding year.

The result of these efforts was in itself sufficient to
indicate the direction in which exertions should be
developed. The whole of England and Wales, excluding
the Metropolis, was mapped out into four sections for the
constant supervision of the four agents, and this division
of labour and allocation of districts was attended by so
many advantages that it may be regarded as in no small
measure contributory to the stability of the Society's
financial position.

1 Stoughton, Hist, of Religion in England, vol. viii. p. 153.

364 THE TESTS CONTROVERSY [1817-

The list of the various institutions and dependent
organisations was now carefully revised and brought up
to date. It showed 284 Auxiliaries, 388 Branches, 1824
Associations, of which more than 1190 were conducted by
ladies — in all, 2496 active agencies in Great Britain alone.

But if the year had been blessed with fruitfulness, it
was also a year of memorable losses. On the 3rd October
1833, died the Rev. Joseph Hughes, the honoured Secretary
whose inspiring question, "Why not for the kingdom
—why not for the world?" originated, under divine
providence, the institution which at the time of his
death had distributed eight and a half million copies
of the Scriptures in more than a hundred languages.
Of his sixty-four years of life, thirty had been spent in the
service of the Society ; in whose advocacy and defence he
had employed an eloquent tongue and a prompt and
convincing pen ; to whose councils he had brought wisdom,
resourcefulness, moderation, and graciousness of disposition.
11 However any might be exalted in rank, whether in
Church or State — however any might seriously differ from
him in subordinate points," the Committee recorded in
their memorial, "all were agreed to reverence and love
an individual in whom so many excellencies appeared."

Shortly before his death, he reluctantly tendered his
resignation.1 "The office," he wrote, "has, I believe,
greatly helped me in the way to heaven. But now my
great Lord seems to say, ' I have dissolved the commission
— thy work in this department is done ; yield cheerfully
to my purpose, and prepare to enter those blessed abodes
where the labours of the Bible Society shall reveal a
more glorious consummation than the fondest hope had
anticipated.' '

He was buried in Bunhill Fields, the resting-place of
John Bunyan, of the mother of the Wesleys, of many more

1 He bequeathed ^100 to the funds of the Society.

i«34] THE GRAVE OF JOSEPH HUGHES 365

whose names are beloved and reverenced. Thirty years
later a Mr William Hardcastle, connected with the Societies
to which Mr Hughes had been Secretary, visited the
cemetery. It had recently been laid out in walks and
planted with trees,1 and with difficulty he found the humble
grave, and deciphered among the grass, at the foot of the
stone, the mouldering and incomplete inscription :

Joseph Hughes M.A. 1833
British and Foreign

He drew the attention of friends to this perishing
memorial ; a fund was raised,2 and a seemly monument in
red and grey granite was erected to the memory of the
man to whom the Religious Tract and British and
Foreign Bible Societies owed so much.

In the course of the year the Rev. George Browne,
minister of the Independent congregation at Clapham,
was appointed to succeed Mr Hughes as Secretary.
His reception by Lord Teign mouth was the last official
act of the first President of the Bible Society.

His lordship had recovered slowly from a serious ill-
ness in the early part of the year, and had regained health
and strength during a residence at Hampstead. A week
or two before his eighty-second birthday (8th October) he
returned to his London house, but on Christmas-day he
suffered a relapse from which neither his physical nor his
intellectual powers completely rallied. Lord Bexley and
Dr Ireland, Dean of Westminster, were among the friends
whose attention was constant during these declining days,
and he had the affectionate care and spiritual assistance

1 Bunhill Fields was leased as a burial-ground in 1665. When the cemetery was
closed in 1852 more than 120,000 persons had been interred. In 1867 it was
committed to the care of the Corporation of London, laid out as a free space, and
opened to the public on the I4th October 1869.

2 Among the subscribers were the Earl of Shaftesbury, President of the Society,
Mr S. Morley, Dr Angus, the Rev. Thomas Binney, and Mr Thomas Hankey, one
of the few who remembered Mr Hughes in the early years of the Bible cause,

366 THE TESTS CONTROVERSY [1817-

of his beloved son-in-law, the Rev. Robert Anderson, whom
he had long before chosen to attend him in his dying hours.
About a week before the event he foretold the day of his
decease, which took place on the i4th February 1834, the
anniversary of his happy marriage.1 His remains were
laid in the parish church of St Marylebone, and in
compliance with his strict injunctions his funeral was
attended only by his immediate relatives and connections.
The epitaph on the monument to his memory recorded
no more than his title and age, and the fact that he had
been

" President of the British and Foreign Bible Society
From its foundation to his death, a period of thirty years,
And formerly Governor- General of India."

Regret for his loss was tempered by gratitude that he
had been so long permitted to give the Society the prestige
of his rank and station, to guide it with his wisdom and
experience in administration, to furnish it with an example
of the generous catholicity, the winning candour, the
unfailing charity, the simple Christian piety on which its
harmonious activity depended. For many years he paid
unremitting attention to the details of its proceedings ; the
earlier reports were wholly written by himself; once only
from the beginning up till 1830 had he been unable to
preside at its anniversary celebration. Even when illness
and declining strength prevented his presence in the
Committee he exercised a constant superintendence by
means of the unrestricted intercourse which he afforded to
the officers of the Society. His prayers were continually
offered up on its behalf. Its troubles and difficulties
weighed upon his heart as though they had been the
burdens of his own household. In a letter to one of his

1 In the forty-second year of his marriage (1828) he writes to his son Frederick :
"I could very conscientiously claim the flitch of bacon at Dunmow," Lady
Teignmouth survived him only four months.

THE DEATH OF LORD TEIGNMOUTH 367

sons, shortly after the Scottish secession, he wrote : — " Such
occurrences as have lately happened in our Society contri-
bute to make me hang loosely on the world. My wish and
prayer are that, while I am in it, I may devote the remainder
of my life to the service of God " ; and there is a strange
pathos in the memorandum which he jotted beneath his
signature in another letter about the same time — " ^Etat.
74 y. ii mo. 14 days."

To the veneration in which his name was held abroad
it would be difficult to indicate any limit. His introduction
and recommendation never failed to ensure a kind and ready
attention from many of the most distinguished persons
of every country. The funeral of his son Henry was an
affecting instance of the respect and attachment of the
common people. Another son, his biographer and
successor, travelling in Norway, reached the house of an
aged minister in a wild sequestered nook of the Bergen
district. After reading the letter of introduction which he
presented, the venerable pastor beckoned him to follow,
and at once led him up to a portrait of his father. The
hospitality corresponded with such a welcome.1

The choice of a successor fell spontaneously and
unanimously upon the Right Hon. Lord Bexley, whose zeal
had long been known, who had often supplied the place
of the President in Committee and at public meetings, and
who, next to Lord Teignmouth, was most familiar with
the character and affairs of the Society. As Mr Vansittart,
he had been an unhesitating but prudent and far-seeing
advocate and defender of the Society in the days when it
was most exposed to obloquy and derision, and in the
midst of the great war and under the pressure of the financial
difficulties which it occasioned, he found time while
Chancellor of the Exchequer to promote its interests.

Nicholas Vansittart was born in April 1766. His father,

1 Life of Lord Teignmoitth, vol. ii. p. 540,

368 THE TESTS CONTROVERSY [1817-

Henry Vansittart, had been Governor of Fort William,
Bengal, from 1760-1765, and his mother was the daughter
of Nicholas Morse, some time Governor of Madras. When
the child was three years old Mr Vansittart, who had been
appointed one of three supervisors of East Indian affairs,
sailed for Calcutta in the frigate Aurora. It foundered at
sea, and all on board perished. In connection with this
tragic end a strange story is told on what appears to be
good authority. Mrs Vansittart dreamed one night that
her husband appeared to her, sitting naked on a barren
rock. He told her not to give credit to any rumours
relative to his death (which was announced soon after) ;
and the lady was so deeply affected by what had occurred,
and so prepossessed with the authenticity of the supposed
communication, that she refused to put on mourning for
the space of two whole years.1

Young Vansittart was educated at Mr Gilpin's school at
Cheam in Surrey, took the degree of M.A. at Christ Church,
Oxford, was called to the bar in 1791, and five years
later was returned to Parliament for Hastings. When
the Bible Society was formed he was one of the two
statesmen who represented "the solitary shepherd of Old
Sarum," and in the same year he was made a Lord of the
Treasury. Upon the death of Mr Perceval he filled the
position of Chancellor of the Exchequer till 1822 ; in 1823
he was created Baron Bexley, and from 1828 onward he
took little part in public affairs.

He was sixty-eight when called upon to succeed Lord
Teignmouth, as second President, but he had still seventeen
years in which to devote himself to the cause of the Bible.
Probably little need be changed in the description of his
appearance in the House of Commons to adapt it to his
presence at the meetings of the Bible Society: — "The

1 Wilson, A Biographical Index to the present House of Commons, 1808. The
statement was " communicated to the editor by a person of condition, well acquainted
WJth the family." Falconer, author of The Shipwreck, went down in the Aurora.

i834] LORD BEXLEY, SECOND PRESIDENT 369

primitive simplicity of his character procured him many
friends, and his white hair and unworldly gentleness
acquired the sort of reverence men are accustomed to feel
for a saintly priest. Above all, his perpetual good-nature
secured a patient, even half-affectionate attention."1

1 Morris, Founders and Presidents of the Bible Society, p. 108.

VOL. I 2 A

CHAPTER XIX

THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVE

DURING these eventful years the Bible cause had been
making steady progress in Ireland. From the first, the
Auxiliaries of Scotland and Wales had been contributory ;
for many years the Irish Auxiliaries were less happily
circumstanced. Ireland was in an impoverished condition,
and though great efforts were made both in the circulation
of the Scriptures and in the establishment of Branches and
Associations, the necessities of the time called for the
liberal assistance of the parent Society.

In 1820 the Hibernian Bible Society had gathered about
it 83 contributory organizations. During the next two
years the number had increased to 147 ; and in 1822
the receipts amounted to ,£4343, and there had been
a distribution of 8628 Bibles and 7949 Testaments.
At the anniversary meeting of the Bible Society in May
1823, the Rev. Robert Daly, vicar of Powerscourt (in
1843 Bishop of Cashel), drew attention to the condition
of education in Ireland, and to the special importance of
the Scriptures being made accessible in the native Irish. In
Antrim, Armagh, and Londonderry, the number of children
educated in Sunday schools was, to the whole population,
in the proportion of one to twelve, and those were peaceable,
quiet counties. But in Limerick — too well known by its
atrocities and murders — the proportion was one to nine
hundred and seventy-seven. In the whole province of
Ulster it was one to seventeen ; and in Munster one to

370

1817-1834] DISTRIBUTIONS IN IRELAND 371

about five hundred. People looked for the cause of the
evil they deplored in a place where it was not to be found ;
they did not look for it in the ignorance of the Scriptures
and the lack of education. In the provinces of Munster
and Connaught there were two millions of people who spoke
no language but Irish ; and during all the years he had
been looking for a copy of the Irish Bible in shops and
at bookstalls he had found but one, and the price of that
was two guineas. In parts of the country where the people
happened to know sufficient English to answer a question
on the roads or in the fields, it was Irish that was spoken
by the fireside ; and by these people the Scriptures in
Irish would be read where the English Bible would be
rejected with disgust.

Impressed by this representation of the case, the Com-
mittee decided to print in the Erse character 5000 copies
of Bishop Bedell's Irish Bible ; and an edition of 20,000
copies of the New Testament was also prepared. During
the next two years munificent grants were voted to the
Hibernian Bible Society (in addition to ^"300 to aid the
printing of an Irish pocket Bible) ; to the London Hibernian
School Society, whjch at this time occupied twenty-nine
of the thirty-two Irish counties, and had 1072 schools with
88,699 scholars (160 for adults with an attendance of 10,817) ;
to the Sunday School Society for Ireland, the Baptist
Irish Society, and other organizations and individuals.
By these means 16,700 Bibles (of which 700 were Irish)
and 123,000 Testaments (3900 Irish), and 10,000 copies
of the Irish version of St Matthew in the Erse character
were distributed in Ireland, at a cost to the Society of

From year to year there were fluctuations in the receipts,
in the contributions, in the number of accessions to the
Hibernian Bible Society. There were minor troubles ;
the accuracy of the Irish reprints was attacked ; a few

372 THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVE [1817-

associations withdrew because they could not have the
Scottish metrical version of the Psalms circulated with
the sacred text. But the general character of the period
was progressive. In 1833-4 the Auxiliaries, Branches,
and Associations of the Hibernian Bible Society numbered
about 630, and the issue of the Scriptures from the
beginning (1806) had reached an aggregate of 707,767
copies. Similarly, with the great distributive agencies just
mentioned, the extent of the grants varied according to
circumstances, but in the course of this second period
the grants made to Ireland by the Committee amounted,
from first to last, to no less than ,£79,284. The range
of the London Hibernian Society's work became con-
siderably enlarged; in 1834 there were 1690 schools — 770
week-day and 920 adult and Sunday schools. With this,
as with other societies, precautions were taken by their
inspectors and superintendents to render the abuse of these
donations of the Scriptures impossible.

And the effect? Some indication is given in a report of
the Hibernian Bible Society: — "The good effects of the
Irish Scriptures are incalculable. The native Irish so love
their language that, despite of priestly anathemas and every
opposition, they will receive and learn to read the Irish
Bible. I have known several who, before they would
give up their Irish Scriptures, have given up their own
for a foreign land. . . . Within the last ten years I have
seen hundreds of these poor peasantry, who are in con-
nection with good schools, suffering, from attachment to
the Irish Scriptures, the severest displeasure of their
priests, and exclusion for years from all rites of the
Church, before they would consent to exclude that book
from their cabins. ... I am personally acquainted with
more than 200 of these men who, because they would
not resign their Bible-reading or teaching, have been way-
laid, beaten, and abused." Experience proved, it was

PROVISION FOR EMIGRANTS 373

added, that wherever the Irish Bible went, the English
followed. The activity of the friends of the Bible cause had
also produced a reaction amongst the Roman Catholic clergy.
Their bishops in the north had printed in Belfast some
thousand copies of the Douai Bible, with notes, and the
edition had had an extensive circulation. A comparison of
its text, however, with that of the Authorised Version had
gone far to break down the prejudice and distrust which
had been felt against the latter.

Let us glance for a moment at some of the other directions
in which the Bible Society exercised its influence during this
period. At home among our own people opportunities were
not lacking, and were not neglected. We have already seen
what was done for soldiers and sea-farers of every descrip-
tion. To poor schools, and through the medium- of various
benevolent societies, grants of the Scriptures were distributed
to the value of ^4996. Poor foreigners, including Polish
refugees, were supplied to the extent of ^682. The votes to
convict-ships, prisons, and the hulks amounted to £1170.

To the Isle of Man ^438 was voted in grants ; and
to the London Newfoundland School Society ^"1584.

A specially interesting group of recipients was that of
the emigrants. Our population had increased from close
on fifteen and three-quarter millions in 1801 to more than
twenty-four millions in 1831. The times were hard and
were growing harder, and men's thoughts began to turn
more adventurously to a new life in a freer world. The
number of emigrants increased from 2081 in 1815 to
12,500 in 1816; to 20,600 in 1817; to 25,700 in 1820;
to 56,900 in 1830. In 1840 it was 90,700. Not a great
multitude, but emigration severed the adventurers and the
exiles from old traditions, relaxed the familiar restraints,
exposed to many dangers while it opened up bright prospects
of life. The Bible Society was anxious that emigrant ships

374 THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVE [1817-

should not cross the seas without bearing with them the
message of the true Land of Promise ; and Bibles and
Testaments in English and Gaelic and other tongues were
furnished at a cost of ^1885. The attention of the
Auxiliaries at the different emigrant ports was called
to the subject, and occasionally duly qualified persons
were engaged to visit the ships. Circulars were also
sent to the Auxiliaries of the colonies to which the emigrants
were sailing, and special grants and arrangements were
made to provide the new settlers with the Word of Life.

One brief glimpse a Scottish minister has preserved for
us of the sailing of the last emigrant ship of 1832. It
had been unexpectedly detained by wind or tide over the
Sabbath at its last port of call ; service was attended,
and a sermon was preached from the text, "Ye are the
salt of the earth." The preacher noticed the large number
of strange faces in his auditory, and "judging them to
be exiles from the land of their fathers — the land of Bibles
and Gospel privileges — going to a far country, he was
led to address himself to them in a manner which left
few dry eyes in the deeply affected congregation. He
besought them to be as ' salt ' in the wilderness where
they were going; and appealed to them as to the danger
of 'salt losing its saltness.' In the course of the day he
received a letter, signed 'An Emigrant,' expressing his
and his fellow-voyagers' deep sentiments of obligation to
the faithful and affectionate preacher, and their hope that
the solemn services of that last Sabbath in Britain might
not be lost upon them. Aboard that very vessel were
not a few copies of the Scriptures, the very last of your
former supply. That is a k salt ' which will never lose
its saltness."

In one or other of these emigrant ships there went
out a young Roman Catholic lad. He does not seem to
have received a Bible on board, but one was placed in

1834] EXPENDITURE ON HOME WORK 375

his hands in the United States while he was yet a youth,
and it impressed his mind and heart. More than thirty
years rolled by, and in 1851 he stood on the platform at
the anniversary meeting of the Society, and was introduced
as the Rev. Dr Murray, the delegate of the American
Bible Society.

And other sails were bearing other sea-farers to distant
lands, — missionaries and travellers of all kinds. To the
care of these and other volunteers in the good work,
Scriptures in various tongues were entrusted to the value
of ^5837. During these years, also, the London Society
for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, the Society
of Friends to the Hebrew Nation, the Philo-Judean Society
were all at work.

During this second period the Bible Society expended
on its home-work in the various directions indicated an
aggregate of ,£108,000.

Notwithstanding the secessions occasioned by the two
great controversies, and the losses incidental to the chang-
ing years, the Society was able to maintain the dis-
tinguished character of its roll of patrons. The following
Vice-Presidents accepted office between 1820 and 1834.

1820-1838 The Archbishop of Tuam (Hon. Power Trench).

1821-1839 The Duke of Bedford (6th Duke).1

1821-1834 The Earl of Hardwicke (3rd Earl):-*

1821-1834 The Earl Spencer (2nd Earl).3

1821-1835 The Earl of Glasgow (jth Earl).

1 82 1 - 1 869 The Earl of Roden (3rd Earl).

1821-1850 The Earl of Gosford (2nd Earl).

1821-1832 Admiral Viscount Exmouth,

1821-1854 Lieut.-General Viscount Lorton.

1821-1846 Lord Calthorpe (3rd Baron).

1821-1829 Lord Waterpark (2nd Baron).

1 A munificent patron of art and industry ; rebuilt Covent Garden market at a cost
of upwards of ^40,000 ; father of Lord John Russell (ist Earl Russell).

2 Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland from 1801 to 1804.

3 First Lord of the Admiralty during the most brilliant period of our naval
history.

376 THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVE [1817-

1821-1871 Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, Bart.1

1821-1854 Sir Robert Harry Inglis, Bart.2

1821-1865 The Right Hon. Charles Grant, M.P. (1835, Lord Glenelg).

1822-1885 The Hon. Charles John Shore (1834, 2nd Lord Teignmouth).

1823-1826 The Bishop of Calcutta (Reginald Heber).
1823-1845 The Dean of Salisbury (Hugh Nicolas Pearson).
1823-1866 Lord Barham (1842, Earl of Gainsborough).

1824-1835 The Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry (Hon. Henry Ryder).

1825-1836 The Bishop of Salisbury (Thomas Burgess).

1825-1870 The Earl of Rocksavage (1827, Marquis of Cholmondeley).

1826-1827 The Bishop of Llandaff (Charles Richard Sumner ; 1827
Bishop of Winchester).

1827-1828 The Bishop of Calcutta (J. T. James).

1827-1855 Viscount Mandeville (1843, 6th Duke of Manchester).

1827-1838 Lord Farnham (5th Baron).

1828-1874 The Bishop of Winchester (Charles Richard Sumner).
1828-1837 The Bishop of Sodor and Man (William Ward).

1829-1862 The Bishop of Chester (John Bird Sumner ; 1848, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury).

1829-1831 The Bishop of Calcutta (J. M. Turner).
1829-1846 Lord Mount Sandford.

1831-1834 The Bishop of Bristol (Robert Gray).
1831-1885 The Earl of Chichester (3rd Earl).

1832-1858 The Bishop of Calcutta (Daniel Wilson).
1832-1840 Lord Henley.

1833-1864 Viscount Morpeth (1848, 7th Earl of Carlisle).4

We must now throw into chronological order a number
of interesting details which do not lend themselves to
any better arrangement.

1 M.P. for Devon from 1812 to 1830, with an interval of two years, and of
North Devon from 1837 to 1857 ; actively interested in the religious movements of
the time.

2 A friend of Peel, whom he defeated at Oxford in 1829 on the question of
Catholic Emancipation. At the coronation of George IV. he was charged with the
unpleasant office of refusing Queen Caroline admission to Westminster Abbey.

3 Dr Ward, it will be remembered, took an active part while rector of Myland in
the controversy arising out of the formation of the Colchester Auxiliary — chapter V.

* Chief Secretary for Ireland, 1835; Lord-Lieutenant, 1855.

1834] MEMORABILIA 377

In 1817-18 large editions of the Malay Bible and
Testament, of Martyn's Hindustani Testament and Fitrut's
Genesis, and of the Syriac Old Testament were put to
press under the care of the Rev. Samuel Lee ; and with
his assistance an Arabic Bible was being edited by Dr
Macbride, Professor of Arabic at Cambridge. By the end
of this period, revised versions or new translations had
been printed, or were in the course of printing, at home,
in thirty-nine different languages.

On the 3rd March, 1819, died Mr Joseph Hardcastle,
at whose house in Old Swan Stairs, " on a dark December
morning," in the second year of the century, the project
of a Bible Society was first conceived. He was one of the
founders of the Religious Tract Society, and the first
treasurer of the London Missionary Society which he had
also helped to establish. He was born at Leeds on the
7th December 1752, and was buried in Bunhill Fields.

On the 24th May in the same year the Princess Victoria
was born ; and in 1820, on the 23rd January, died her
father, H.R.H. the Duke of Kent, one of the most illustrious
patrons and warmest friends of the Society.

On the 2Qth of the same month died his Majesty
George III., whose wish it was "that every child in his
dominions should be able to read the Bible."

At the anniversary meeting of the Society on the 2nd
May 1820, Mr Ward of Serampore presented copies of
versions, prepared and printed in the settlement, in ten
Oriental languages ; and Dr Adam Clarke introduced two
Sinhalese converts. Reared from childhood in the temple
of Buddha, they had reached the rank of high-priests when
copies of the New Testament in their native tongue were
given them to read. They were filled with astonishment.
The Lord Jesus Christ had made friends of fishermen !
" They were of the fishermen's caste in Ceylon, and it struck
them that if the author of this religion did associate with

378 THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVE [1817

persons of that profession who became the means of spread-
ing the knowledge of His Gospel through almost the whole
world, perhaps it might please Him to use them, who
were fishermen also, to make known His Gospel to their
countrymen." When Sir Alexander Johnston sailed for
England, they left their temple, their friends, and their
country, put off in a boat, came up with the ship, then
under weigh, and were taken on board and brought to
England. That had happened in 1817. Dr Clarke had
received them into his own house, and they had in time
been admitted into full communion with the Church. These
were of the labours of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

In 1821 Thomas Scott, the eminent Evangelical whose
name has so often appeared in these pages, passed to his
reward.

In May of the same year Parry set out on his Polar
expedition, and took with him a few copies of the Eskimo
Gospels.

In 1822 the Society lost in the Bishop of Meath one of
its honoured Vice-Presidents. The son of a Roman Catholic
family, Thomas Lewis O'Beirne was educated with his
brother John for the priesthood at St Omer, and it is a
singular fact that years afterwards the brothers ministered
in the same diocese, the one as a zealous parish priest, the
other as a prelate of the Protestant establishment.

His Excellency, Mr Papoff, the secretary of the Russian
Bible Society, was present at the anniversary meeting of
1823 ; and the eldest son of Marshman of Serampore laid
on the table a copy of the entire Bible in Chinese. In
the following year another version in the same language
was presented by Dr Morrison — the fruit of his own pro-
longed labours and those of his deceased colleague, the Rev.
Dr Milne.

At this last anniversary two old Admirals whose
battle-ships had encountered in the great war now met and

1834] POPE LEO XII. AND THE SOCIETY 379

shook hands — Lord Gambier and Count Ver Huell, the
representative of the Paris Bible Society.

In 1823 the Society had to mourn the sudden death, in
his seventy-eighth year, of Charles Grant, the beloved
"ruler of the rulers of the East." His remains were
followed to their last resting-place by his friend Lord
Teignmouth. Mr Ronneberg, who for some years had
acted as Assistant Foreign Secretary, died in the same year,
and his place was filled by Mr John Jackson.

In 1823, also, Pope Pius VII. slept the sleep which the
silver mallet cannot break. One of the earliest acts of his
successor, Leo XII., was the publication of an Encyclical
in which he attacked the Society : —

" You are aware, venerable brethren, that a certain Society called the
Bible Society, strolls with effrontery through the world ; which Society,
contemning the traditions of the Holy Fathers, and contrary to the well-
known decree of the Council of Trent, labours with all its might, and by
every means, to translate, or rather to pervert, the Holy Scriptures into the
vulgar language of every nation ; from which proceeding it is greatly to be
feared that, by a perverse interpretation, the Gospel of Christ may be turned
into a human Gospel — or, what is worse, the Gospel of the Devil. To avert
this plague, our predecessors published many ordinances, and proofs collected
from the Holy Scriptures and tradition, to show how noxious this most
wicked novelty is to faith and morals. We exhort you, therefore, by all
means to turn away your flocks from these poisonous pastures, being
persuaded that if the Scriptures be everywhere indiscriminately published,
more evil than advantage will arise on account of the rashness of
men," etc.

On the iQth April 1824 Lord Byron died at Missolonghi,
and was succeeded in the title by his first cousin, the
Commander of H.M.S. Blonde, which carried out to the
Sandwich Islands the remains of King Kamehameha and
his Queen, who had died in London of measles in that year.
The Committee placed 100 Bibles and 300 Testaments in
the charge of Mr Bloxham, the chaplain of the vessel,
for distribution during the voyage. In the course of his
cruising in the South Seas, Lord Byron lighted on an

380 THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVE [1817

island which he thought had not yet been discovered. At
a missionary meeting which he attended a year or two later
at Bristol, his lordship told how the boats were lowered,
and with what precaution his men approached the suspected
shore. Suddenly a canoe appeared. Instead of armed
savages, its occupants were two noble-looking men clothed
in cotton shirts and very fine mats. They boarded the
ship, and presented a document from a missionary stating
that they were native teachers employed in preaching the
Gospel to the people of the island. His lordship then
went ashore. He was led through a wood, beyond which
a wide lawn opened before him ; and in the centre of the
lawn stood a spacious chapel, and native cottages peeped
through the foliage of the bread-fruit and banana trees in
which they were embowered. Entering one of the cottages,
which was beautifully clean, he found on the table a portion
of the New Testament in the native language.

His lordship's story was repeated by a clergyman at
an overflow meeting in Exeter Hall at the anniversary
celebration of the Society in 1836. When the speaker had
concluded, a stranger arose, and introduced himself to the
audience as the missionary who had discovered the island,
made Christianity known to the inhabitants, and translated
the very portion of the Scripture which Lord Byron had
found, and which had sufficed to draw those savage tribes
from cannibalism and idolatry to the worship of the true
God. It was John Williams.

In 1825 his Majesty George IV. graciously accepted for
his private library a complete set of the versions published
by the Society.

With the view of extending the range of their usefulness
in a fresh direction, the Committee arranged in 1825 to
supply Sunday schools with the Scriptures at greatly
reduced prices — the nonpareil Bible at two shillings, and
the brevier Testament at ninepence. Many thousands of

i834l RESIGNATION OF DR STEINKOPFF 381

copies were distributed in a little while through these
channels.

In 1826 the Society lost two of its eminent patrons —
one, Dr Barrington, who for more than thirty-five years
had occupied the see of Durham (the last but one in the
long procession of its Princes Palatine), who had been a
liberal benefactor of the French clergy in their exile during
the Revolution, whose name had appeared in the first list
of Vice-Presidents, and who at the last had bequeathed
^500 to the Bible cause : the other, the Marquis of
Hastings, who, as Lord Moira, accepted the office of
Vice-President in 1813, not long before he took up the
Governor-Generalship of India. Pursuing the policy of
Warren Hastings and Wellesley, he made England the
one great Power in Hindustan. He returned home,
broken in health, in 1823, and two years later was
appointed Governor of Malta. His last wish was com-
plied with, — that his right hand should be preserved until
the death of the Marchioness and then laid in her coffin
to be buried with her.

Weakened by illness, and feeling himself over-burdened
by the complication of difficulties arising out of the
Apocrypha controversy, Dr Steinkopff resigned his respon-
sible position as Foreign Secretary on the 2nd December
1826. The Committee put on record their warm recognition
of the magnitude, extent, and beneficial effects of his dis-
interested services at home and abroad for more than
twenty-two years ; but though he was released from the
cares of office, Dr Steinkopff let pass no opportunity of
promoting the interests of the Society, and twenty-seven
years later he was able to take a part in the celebration of
its Jubilee.

For some time the duties of his post were discharged
by Dr Pinkerton, and when the latter was absent abroad
Dr Steinkopff gave his services so far as his health and

382 THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVE [1817-

circumstances would permit. In 1829, however, the
concerns of the institution had become so extensive and
varied that the appointment of a Superintendent of the
Translating and Literary Department became imperative,
and Mr William Greenfield, who besides editing Bagster's
Comprehensive Bible had edited or revised for the press
the Syriac New Testament, a large portion of the Polyglot
New Testament, the Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, and
Vulgate, was selected for the position at a salary of ^300.
Unhappily the Society had not long the benefit of his
remarkable gift of tongues. While apparently in the
full bloom of health he died suddenly in 1831, after
having brought his talents into exercise in no fewer than
twelve European, five Asiatic, one African, and three
American languages, and acquired during the nineteen
months of his engagement considerable skill in Peruvian,
Negro-English, Chippeway and Berber. The Rev. Joseph
Jowett, M.A., rector of Dilk Willoughby, Lincolnshire,
succeeded him in the following year.

In 1828 the Society lost another of its Vice-Presidents,
Lord Liverpool, who was Prime Minister from 1812-1827,
and during those busy years found frequent occasion to
advocate its claims.

In 1831, during the destructive Reform Bill riots, the
palace of the Bishop of Bristol, one of the Society's Vice-
Presidents, was plundered and burnt down with the
Mansion House, Excise Office, the gaols and other public
and private buildings ; the Bishop of Winchester, another
of the Society's Vice-Presidents, was burnt in effigy close
to his own palace ; and Dr Ryder, the Bishop of Lichfield,
a third Vice-President, was in danger of being killed after
preaching a charity sermon at St Bride's Church.

In 1832 died Lord Gambier, one of the earliest Vice-Presi-
dents and one of the most constant friends of the Society.
In his will he bequeathed ^"200 to the institution.

»*34] ENGAGEMENT OF GEORGE BORROW 383

In this year a strange and interesting figure enters into
the history of the Bible Society. It is not known how
George Borrow came to meet the Rev. Francis Cunningham,
who introduced him to the Secretaries of the Society.
Borrow walked from Norwich to London to see Mr Brandram
and the Literary Superintendent, Mr Jowett, and in the
July of the following year his services were engaged, and
he was sent to St Petersburg to see an edition of the
Manchu Testament through the press.

In 1833 the Society lost three more distinguished
supporters. Admiral Viscount Exmouth, one of its Vice-
Presidents, died in January at the age of seventy-six. He
was the beau idfal of a Christian British sailor. At the
opening of the French war in 1793, he manned the
36-gun frigate Nyuiphe with Cornish miners and captured
the first prize of the war, the "crack ship of France,"
Cleopatre, of 40 guns. In 1816 he bombarded Algiers for
nine hours on the 26th August, compelled the Dey to
surrender about 1200 slaves, and abolished Christian
slavery in the Barbary States. In 1821 he retired from
active service, and was enrolled among the Vice-Presidents
of the Bible Society ; and a year before his death was
raised to the high station of Vice-Admiral of England.

In 1833 also died, in his eighty-ninth year, the venerable
Rowland Hill, who in the intervals of his spiritual ministra-
tions, vaccinated as many of his Sunday school children
and their parents as were willing to avail themselves of
his skill. On the anniversary of Jenner's birthday in
1806 he stated at a meeting of the Jennerian Society that
he had vaccinated 5000 subjects without a failure.1

At the same great age and in the same year died
Hannah More, whose name, influence, and liberal contribu-
tions did much for the Bible cause in her own neighbour-
hood. "The friends of the Society for many years met a

1 Annual Register, I7th May 1806.

384 THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVE [1817-

cordial welcome at Barley Wood, and the anniversaries of
the Wrington Bible Association were always happy days."
She left the Society a legacy of ^1000, and a similar
amount, payable on her death, had also been bequeathed
by her sister Martha — the poet Cowper's "Patty."

During this period the Committee had marked their
appreciation of the valuable services of the following friends
of the Society by enrolling them as—

HONORARY GOVERNORS FOR LIFE.

1818 — His Excellency Lieut-Gen. Brownrigg, Governor of Ceylon.1

William Gray, York.

The Rev. William Richardson, York.

William Hey, F.R.S., Leeds.2
1821 — J. H. Harrington, Harrow.

The Rev. William Jowett, Malta.

G. F. Stratton, Over Warton, Deddington, Oxon.

The Rev. Marmaduke Thompson, M.A., Chaplain E.I.C.,
Madras.

The Rev. Daniel Wilson, M.A., St John's Chapel, Bedford Row

(afterwards Bishop of Calcutta).
1822— The Rev. R. P. Beachcroft, M.A., Rector of Blunham, Beds.

The Rev. T. S. Grimshawe, M.A., Rector of Burton Latimer.

The Rev. G. Hulme, M.A., Shinfield, Berks.

1823 — J. D. Macbride, D.C.L., Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford.
1825— T. P. Platt, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, M.A., F.A.S.
1827 — The Rev. Francis Cunningham, Rector of Pakefield, Suffolk.

The Rev. T. T. Thomason, M.A., Chaplain E.I.C., Calcutta.
1828 — John Mackintosh, Glasgow.

The Rev. R. W. Sibthorp, B.D., Fellow of Magdalen College,

Oxford.

1831 — Emanuel Schnell, Basel, Switzerland.

1832 — James Bentley, M.A., Professor of Oriental Languages, King's
College, Aberdeen, who from 1816 had been an Honorary
Member for Life.

In 1833 died the devoted Christian philanthropist and
statesman, William Wilberforce, who had taken part in the
deliberations which preceded the formation of the Society,

1 Took Kandy and annexed the Island of Ceylon in 1815.

2 One of three successive generations of notable surgeons.

i«34] DEATH OF WILLIAM WILBERFORCE 385

who had ''welcomed its birth as the dawn of a most
auspicious day," who was among the first of the Vice-
Presidents, and who appeared on its platform for the last
time at the anniversary of 1830, when he closed a spirit-
stirring speech with the words, " May God bless this Society,
and make it a blessing to the whole earth!" In 1825 he
had resigned to younger hands the championship of the
cause to which he had consecrated the best years of his life,
and now, in 1833, the final struggle was being decided in
Parliament. He lived long enough to be able to thank
God he had seen 'the day on which the English nation was
willing to pay twenty millions, in compensation to the
planters, for the abolition of slavery.

Writing in July, Joseph John Gurney gives a two-fold
picture of the man who, perhaps more than any other,
impressed his views on the religious public of his time : —
ik I have now enjoyed a near friendship with William
Wilberforce for near seventeen years, and I shall always
consider my acquaintance with him as one of the happiest
circumstances of my life. I well remember his first visit
to Earlham (I think it was about the year 1816) at the time
of our Bible Society meeting, when we were already crowded
with guests. Wilberforce was the star and life of the party,
and we all thought we had never seen a person more
fraught with Christian love, or more overflowing with the
praises of his Creator. . . . Wilberforce is now an old
man — I think in his seventy-sixth year1 — and more than
usually frail and infirm for his age. Since my first
acquaintance with him, many troubles and sorrows have
been his portion. His two daughters were his great delight
— the cold hand of Death has smitten them both ; and in
consequence of the imprudence of a near relation, he has
been deprived, within the last two or three years, of by far
the greatest part of his property. Frequent illness has

1 lie was only seventy-four,
VOL. I. 1 tf

386 THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVE [1817-

also visited him, and increasing years have occasioned
some failure of his memory. Nevertheless his eye is almost
as lively as ever, his intellect lucid, and above all the
sunshine of true religion continues to enlighten and cheer
him on his way."1

He died on the 2Qth July.

Powell Buxton, writing to Zachary Macaulay, describes
the last scene of all : — "We were a long time in the Abbey,
standing near the grave, before the funeral came in — the
coffin followed by a large unarranged but very serious troop
of men, including royal Dukes, many bishops, the members
of Government, many peers, and crowds of M.P.s of all
sorts and parties. . . . Especially did I observe the Duke
of Wellington's aged countenance, feeling how soon
probably the same scene would be enacted for him."2

On the 28th August the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery
received the royal assent, and the measure was to come into
force on the ist August 1834. At the anniversary meeting
of the Society in May that year, the Rev. Hugh Stowell,
of Manchester, suggested that a separate fund should be
raised in order to put a copy of the Word of God, in his
own language, into the hand of every emancipated slave,
as the one boon that could compensate him for the wrongs
he had sustained. The Committee adopted the suggestion,
which was communicated to the friends of the Society and
to the Auxiliaries, Branches, and Associations ; collections
were made — the little children in the Sunday schools giving
their small treasure with the utmost delight ; remittances
were received from Ireland and the Continent ; and when
the fund was at length closed the subscriptions amounted
to ;£ 16,250. The project received the most hearty co-opera-
tion in the West Indies among all classes, including
governors and officials, clergy and missionaries, proprietors,
managers, and, above all, the negroes themselves.

1 Hare, The Gurneys of Ear I ham, vol. ii. pp. 69-71.

2 Ibid. p. 73. The Duke had still nineteen years to live.

1834] THE GIFT FROM ENGLAND 387

The advent of the day of liberation was looked
forward to with some anxiety and uneasiness. Would the
drunkenness, rioting, bloodshed, gloomily predicted by
many, sully the first hour of emancipation ? " Fowell Buxton
was at Northrepps Hall when, on the zoth September, a
large packet of letters came from the Colonies. He felt
that he must open them alone ; so he carried them with
him into one of the shady retreats of those solemn and
beautiful woods, and, with no other sound in his ears than
the melody of the wood birds, and no other witness of his
emotions than the eye that seeth in secret, he opened his
sealed papers and read. He read how, on the evening of
3ist July, the churches and chapels of the islands were
thrown open, and the slaves crowded in to await the hour
of midnight. When that hour drew nigh, they fell on their
knees, and listened for the stroke of the clock ; and when
twelve sounded from the church-tower they sprang to their
feet, for they were all free — all free. No confusion, no
intoxication, no bloodshed ; and on the following Monday
they all returned to their work — to work as free men, and
thenceforth to be paid for their labour."1

Nearly 100,000 copies of the New Testament with the
Psalms were sent out — freight-free, thanks to the generosity
of shipowners and others — as a national gift to the emanci-
pated negroes. As it was found impracticable, however,
to forward the books to their destination in time for
"transition-day," Christmas was appropriately fixed for the
date of distribution, though in the case of some colonies
and islands the time was extended to the ist August 1835,
and again to the ist August 1836. The number of
Testaments required absorbed (with incidental expenses)
,£13,657 ; the balance of the fund was reserved for the
benefit chiefly of the poor negroes of the Cape and the
Mauritius.

* Geldart, The JMan in Earnest, pp, 23, 24,

CHAPTER XX

THE AUXILIARIES IN FRANCE

IT will be remembered that in the course of his tour on
the Continent in 1814 Dr Pinkerton visited Leyden and
examined the MS. of a Turkish version of the whole
Bible, which, among other Oriental treasures, had lain in
the archives of the University for a century and a half.
The translator, Albertus Bobowsky, or Bobovius, better
known as Ali Bey, was born in Poland early in the
seventeenth century. Kidnapped in childhood by the
Tartars, he was sold to the Turks at Constantinople,
where, after twenty years' training, he publicly professed
the religion of the Prophet, and was appointed first
dragoman1 to Mahomet IV. He was a man of extreme
erudition, master of seventeen languages, and spoke
English, German, and French with the precision of a
native. He composed and translated a number of works,
but his most important achievement was a version of the
Holy Scriptures, undertaken at the instance of Levin
Warner, Dutch ambassador to the Court of the Grand
Sultan. On its completion about the year 1666 — the very
year in which Seaman's Tartar-Turkish New Testament
was printed at Oxford — Warner forwarded it to Leyden,
corrected and ready for the press. The printing was
never executed, and the MS. was committed to the library

1 Dragoman = Interpreter. Under the form Targnmanmi, the word occurs on
the monuments of Khu-n-Aten (Amenophis IV.), in the fifteenth century B.c,

1817-1834] THE TURKISH BIBLE 389

and forgotten. To the translator himself the work appears
to have been so far blessed that he believed in the truth
of the Gospel, and intended to return to the bosom of
Christianity, but died before he could realise his intention.

Having satisfied himself that the version would promote
the cause of the Society, Dr Pinkerton obtained the loan
of the MS. and made arrangements for its transcription
and revision at Berlin. The task was entrusted to Baron
Von Diez, counsellor of legation to the Court of Berlin,
and sometime Russian ambassador at Constantinople.
He was closely acquainted with the Turkish language,
but he was advanced in years, and serious illness prevented
him from making rapid progress with the work. On the
ist April 1817, Dr Jsenicke, the secretary of the Prussian
Bible Society, found him weak and suffering. " He was
resting his head on his writing-desk, hardly able to speak,
but the few words he said gave me great pleasure. ' I
still indulge a hope that God will restore me that I may
finish the Turkish Bible, but, if He should have otherwise
ordained it, His will be done. I can say with Paul, If I
live, I live unto the Lord ; or if I die, I die unto the
Lord.' ' On the morning of the 8th, the Baron breathed
his last, having revised but four books of the Pentateuch.

"The Society," Lord Teignmouth had once said,
" never wanted means and instruments for the furtherance
of its objects." The work which had dropped from the
hands of Von Diez was taken up in 1817-18 by M. Jean
Daniel Kieffer, Professor of Oriental Languages in the
Royal College of Paris, and Interpreting Secretary to the
King of France.

More than twenty years before, Kieffer, who was then
in the French Foreign Office, had been despatched to
Constantinople as interpreter to the French ambassador.
When Bonaparte embarked on his wild dream of conquest
in the East in 1798, the diplomatic staff at Constantinople

390 THE AUXILIARIES IN FRANCE [1817-

were committed, according to Moslem custom when the
Porte was at variance with any of the Powers, to the
Castle of the Seven Towers ; and, during the term of his
imprisonment, Kieffer spent his time, with the assistance
of M. Ruffin, the Charge d'Affaires, in perfecting his
knowledge of Turkish and other Eastern tongues. In
1803 he returned to Paris in the suite of the Turkish
ambassador, and on his arrival was appointed Interpreter
in the Foreign Office. Shortly afterwards, as deputy
Professor of Turkish in the College of France, he filled
the chair of M. Ruffin, who remained at Constantinople,
and on his death was installed as his successor. In 1818
he was appointed First Secretary and Interpreter of the
Oriental Languages to the King.

When his services were requested for the Turkish
version, he was permitted by the French Government to
visit the Committee in London. Proceeding to Leyden, he
obtained every facility for the transfer of the MS. to Paris ;
through the liberality of the French Government, the paper
and type were imported duty free ; arrangements were
made with the Royal Printing Office at Paris ; and the
Professor began, with the aid of Baron Silvestre de Sacy,
to prepare the New Testament for the press. The work,
as we have seen, was completed in time for presentation
at the annual meeting in 1819; and preparations were at
once made for an edition of the whole Bible.

Notwithstanding the care with which the text had been
edited, this issue of the New Testament was not free from
errors of various kinds. The notice of the Committee was
called to the subject by Dr Henderson, who was then
travelling in Russia with his colleague, Dr Paterson. A
revision was made by Professor Kieffer, who drew up a
list of the minor errata, and cancelled pages where mistakes
of importance had been discovered ; and, as scarcely a
hundred copies had been issued when attention was drawn

HENDERSON AND PATERSON RESIGN 391

to these inaccuracies, the Committee regarded this course
as all that was requisite. "But neither the Astrachan
missionaries nor the two Bible agents in Russia deemed
this enough."1 Nothing less than the suppression of
the translation would, in their view, meet the exigencies
of the case ; and as the Committee, who had other advisers
equally erudite and not less scrupulously jealous of the
purity of the sacred text, showed no disposition to adopt the
measure which had been urged upon them, Dr Henderson
and Dr Paterson united in tendering their resignation.
Impressed, apparently, by this extreme procedure, the Com-
mittee suspended the circulation of the volume in the spring
of 1823, until they had ascertained the judgment of the
Oriental experts of France and elsewhere as to the extent
and gravity of the imputed errors. On the i5th December
the question was considered by a Sub-Committee, and atten-
tion was given to a long series of documents. In the collec-
tive opinion of the Orientalists it was clear that, while in a
future edition several alterations might be desirable, the
version as it stood was prejudiced by no grave defect,
and there was no cause for its suppression. The Sub-
Committee accordingly decided that there was no sufficient
reason for suspending the circulation of the volume longer ;
and this conclusion was confirmed on the 29th.

Dr Henderson was not satisfied with the negative protest
of his resignation. In 1824 he published — with the motto,
Qui facet consentire videtur — an "Appeal" to the members
of the Society, "containing a review of the history of
the Turkish version, an exposure of its errors, and palpable
proofs of the necessity of its suppression." Dr Samuel
Lee replied ; and in the following year Dr Henderson
returned to the charge in The Turkish New Testament
Incapable of Defence, which Dr Lee also answered. Painful
as this defection of two of their oldest colleagues was to the

1 Memoir of the Rev. E. Henderson, D.D., p. 266.

392 THE AUXILIARIES IN FRANCE [1817-

Committee, it was recognised that only a stern sense of duty
caused them to sever their connection with the Society, and
in course of time friendly relations were resumed. In
the meanwhile Professor Kieffer was not only revising
the New Testament text, but proceeding with his edition
of the Bible. In 1828, when the work was completed, Dr
Henderson, to whom the proof-sheets had been forwarded,
expressed his unqualified satisfaction, and added his
prayer that God would bless "the labours of an institution,
in the service of which he had spent many happy years
of his life, and which he would rejoice still to aid to the
utmost of his power." At that time he was Theological Tutor
at the London Missionary College at Hoxton, and in 1853,
when he had closed his long and useful connection with
the work at Highbury, he revised for the Society a Danish
Bible and superintended Mr Turabi's revision of the
Turkish New Testament and a Turkish Genesis and
Psalter.

It is pleasant, too, to add that in the summer of 1832
Dr Paterson undertook a tour through Scandinavia on
behalf of the Society, visited Berlin for it in 1836,
and on his return, when he took up his residence in
Edinburgh, acted, as agent and special correspondent in
Scotland until 1850.

The earliest efforts of the Bible Society for the benefit
of France were made, as we have seen, from cities beyond
the frontier. The principal communication was held with
Protestants, but there were not wanting Roman Catholics of
piety, culture, and rank who approved of the Biblical move-
ment. Among these, Baron Silvestre de Sacy drew attention
by several articles in the Journal des S$avans to the important
contributions that were being incidentally made to philo-
logical science by those versions which were revealing to
benighted nations a purer morality and a higher code
of dogma. It was at an early date that continental

1834] THE PROTESTANT B.S. OF PARIS 393

scholars recognised the value of that intellectual work
which, it was acknowledged thirty-five years later, entitled
the Society to a place in the Great Exhibition.1

In 1815 a Bible Society was formed at Strasburg and

circulated an edition of the German Bible among the

Protestant inhabitants of Alsace, who, in their annexation

to France, had not surrendered their ancestral tongue. In

1816 valuable work was done by Henry Oberlin in his

long tour through the east, south, and west of France,

when arrangements were made for correspondence and for

a constant supply of the Scriptures among the Protestants

scattered over those regions. In 1817, with the assistance

of the Bible Society, an edition of the French Bible (Martin's)

was undertaken by a group of pastors and professors at

Montauban, and in 1818 the President of the Consistory

of Toulouse took charge of another edition of 10,000

copies.

Meanwhile several impressions of Ostervald's New-
Testament had been supplied from Paris. It was about
this time that Mr Owen arrived in the French capital.
With his impulsive fervour and administrative skill he gave
the needful impulse to affairs ; the sanction of the Ministry
of Police was obtained ; and on the 3Oth November 1818
the Protestant Bible Society of Paris was formed. The
Marquis de Jaucourt was appointed president, and its
principal officers (among whom may be mentioned the
Baron de Stael, son of the brilliant woman who wrote
Corinnc and De VAUemogne) were chosen from members of
the Chamber of Peers, the Council of State, the University,
the National Institute, and the two Consistories. Auxiliaries
were promptly organised in the Departement des Deux
Sevres, at Bordeaux, Montauban, Toulouse, Montpellier,
and other towns ; Associations sprang up ; and pastors in all

1 T*16 O.ffic>al communication sent to the Committee on the formation of the
Asiatic Society at Paris in 1822 was another tribute to the scientific value of the
versions published or aided by the Bible Society.

394 THE AUXILIARIES IN FRANCE [1817-

parts of the country assisted in obtaining subscriptions
and in making known the wants of their congregations.
Thought was given also to the little groups of Protestants,
who still survived, often without pastor or public worship,
in isolated places. On the vast plains in the Departement
de la Somme there were about six thousand ; and though
they had been unable to replace the sacred books which
had been torn from them in days of persecution, they had
preserved from generation to generation the old hymns
and prayers, and traditions of the most important lessons
and the most touching narratives in the Bible.

It is interesting to recall that the appearance of the
Protestant Bible Society was made the occasion by the
Abbe de Lamennais for a furious attack on the whole
Biblical movement — "the last throe of an expiring sect."
The disposition of the French Government, however, was
significantly revealed by the fact that the Abbe's fulmination
was answered in the columns of the Moniteur ; and when
the institution celebrated its first anniversary H.R.H. the
Due d'Angouleme, with the approval of the King, acknow-
ledged a copy of the report in a most friendly letter ;
the Due Decazes, President of the Council and Minister
of the Interior, subscribed one thousand francs "towards
the attainment of an end to which all Christian communions
ought equally to direct their steps " ; and subsequently
the regulations with regard to the importation of books
were relaxed in favour of the Society, and the duties
were remitted on consignments of the Scriptures.

The Bible cause found supporters and adherents in all
directions. In a year or two the Protestant Bible Society
had associated in its labours thirty-six Auxiliaries, one
consistorial institution, twenty-eight Branches and forty-
nine Associations, of which there were seventeen in Paris
alone. They seemed to be forming everywhere — at Caen
and Marseilles, Rouen and Lyons, Sedan and Montbeliard,

i834l PROFESSOR KIEFFER'S AGENCY 395

Chatillon and Grenoble, Orleans and La Rochelle ; there
was one even at Ferney where Voltaire

" Built God a church and laughed His Word to scorn."

The generosity extended to newly formed societies by the
great English Mother was not stinted in the case of
Paris. Considerable money grants and large supplies of
the Scriptures were voted by the Committee as occasion
required. Up to April 1828 the Paris Society distributed
91,664 Bibles and Testaments; in 1831 the number had
increased to 130,000.

While the Word of Life was thus being dispersed
among the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, the hope of
reaching the vast Roman Catholic majority of the popula-
tion was not abandoned. In 1820 a depot, in the charge of
Professor Kieffer, was opened in Paris with the special object
of accomplishing that part of the work from which, by its
constitution, the Protestant Bible Society was distinctly
precluded. The reader must have been struck by the
singular anomaly presented by this institution, wherein no
place was found for that union and co-operation of all
denominations which was one of the essential characteristics
of the Bible Society. The members themselves felt and
often regretted the unhappy limitation, both of their
constitution and their operations, but it was forced upon
them by the political and religious circumstances of the
time and the country. The catholicity of the Bible Society
was at that period an ideal beyond realisation, and the
sole alternative before them was to sit with folded hands or
to restrict their work to the area of their own faith.

In the depot, however, a powerful supplementary
agency was established. In 1822 upwards of 12,000 copies
of the Scriptures were distributed, and the annual circula-
tion rose to fifteen, seventeen, thirty, sixty thousand
copies. In 1831-2 the issue was 176,139 Bibles and

396 THE AUXILIARIES IN FRANCE [1817-

Testaments. The Society for Mutual Instruction and the
authorities in charge of prisons, hospitals, and asylums
gladly availed themselves of the opportunities placed at
their disposal. In this manner both Roman Catholics and
Protestants were reached, and where the reproof, the
encouragement and the consolation of the Word of God
were most needed there they were to be found. On board
the galleys reckless men were seen grouped about some
fellow-criminal who could read, and as the divine utterance
touched their hearts their tears fell on their chains.

The duties of the Paris Agency were onerous and
important enough to preoccupy the superintendent ; but
Professor Kieffer was a man of exceptional gifts, of un-
bounded energy, and of methodical habits. Neither his
recension of the Turkish Bible nor his rapidly increasing
correspondence prevented him from superintending the print-
ing of versions in half a dozen other languages. In 1822
the first version in Modern Armenian was completed by Dr
Zohrab, an Armenian of Constantinople, who translated
the four Gospels from the Ancient Armenian text. On
his way through Paris Dr Pinkerton obtained as a
specimen the Sermon on the Mount, which he printed
at St Petersburg and sent for critical examination to
various friends in Turkey. Several judges expressed
their high approval, but the priests were dissatisfied with
the style, which they found wholly wanting in the dignity
and elegance of the ancient text. Undeterred by a censure
which he probably attributed to an ecclesiastical prejudice
against any attempt at a modern version, Dr Zohrab
proceeded with his work ; the whole of the New Testament
was translated, and after revision by M. St Martin, an
Armenian scholar, was printed with the Ancient Armenian
in parallel columns and published by M. Kieffer in 1825.
Progress was being made by M. de Quatremere, and
afterwards by Baron de Sacy, in Oriental versions for

i«34] BRETON AND BASQUE VERSIONS 397

the Christians at Aleppo, in the Lebanon, and other parts
of Syria, and in 1828 an edition of the Carshun, and
another of the Carshun and Syriac in parallel columns
were issued. A Breton translation of the New Testament
was also in preparation, but the account of this under-
taking will be more conveniently included in our survey
of the third period of the Society's operations in France.

Considerable impetus was given to the distributions from
the Paris Agency by the friends whom M. Kieffer interested
in the cause and by the depots which he opened in a number
of towns in 1825. M. Appert, who held an important office
in connection with the public schools and prisons in France,
distributed 18,000 copies of the Scriptures in 550 different
places, and was afterwards engaged by the Society, on the
recommendation of the Rev. Francis Cunningham, to make
an extensive tour through the departments, while a clergy-
man in the south, to whom 2000 copies had been intrusted,
forwarded so many importunate requests for the Scriptures
that in the course of the year 25,000 copies of De Sacy's
Testament and editions of Martin and Ostervald's Bibles
had to be printed. Mr Cunningham, who in the course of
an extensive tour which he made in 1826 rendered such
essential service to the Society as to receive a place among
the Honorary Life Governors, bears testimony to the wide-
spread labours of the Paris Agency: "I have seen the
Testaments of this Society in various important schools ; in
the hands of the sick and in the wards of the hospital. I
have known them carried to the infirm and dying by those
who are so emphatically called the Sceurs de la Charite. Much
of the fruit will be discovered only on the great day when
the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed ; but in the
meantime no man can follow the course of the Bible without
perceiving the benefit resulting from its circulation."

In 1825, under the superintendence of M. Pyt, a pastor
of the Reformed Church in Beam, the Gospel of St

398 THE AUXILIARIES IN FRANCE [1817-

Matthew was published in Basque, that mysterious and
antique tongue, or mixture of tongues, the roots of which
seem to strike back into the darkness of the Stone Age.
Four years later the New Testament complete, edited by M.
Montleza, under the supervision of friends at Bayonne and
Bordeaux, was issued at the expense of the Bible Society.
The story of the version is not without interest. The New
Testament was translated into Basque by John de Licarrague,
a Bearnais, it is said, and a minister of the Reformed Church ;
dedicated to Jeanne d'Albret,1 mother of Henry IV. of France
and Navarre; and published at her cost at Rochelle in 1571
on the eve of the Massacre of St Bartholomew. In the course
of two and a half centuries the book had completely dis-
appeared. "Among 60,000 souls, forming the Basque
population in France, it was found impossible, notwith-
standing the most accurate search, to meet with a single
copy of the Sacred Scriptures. By the manifest direction
of Providence, nevertheless, there had been deposited in the
Library of the University of Oxford, a copy of the Basque
New Testament printed at Rochelle in 1571, and conveyed
without doubt to England by a French refugee." 2 From this
unique volume the Gospel of St Matthew was reproduced,
but of the thousand copies printed, as many as eight hundred
were seized and destroyed by the Roman Catholic Bishop.
In the recension of the complete Testament, the text of
Licarrague was modernised, and so many alterations were
made that the version was practically a new one. A thousand
copies of the Gospel of St Matthew, a thousand of the four
Gospels and Acts, and a thousand of the entire New Testa-
ment were issued and industriously circulated in spite of the
opposition of the priests — which, indeed, only served to
stimulate the eagerness of the people. "In 1821," wrote M.

1 Daughter of the beautiful Margaret, Queen of Navarre, who, with the charac-
teristic incongruity of her time, was the author not only of the Heptameron but of
The Mirror of the Sinftil Soul.

2 Report for 1830, p. xxix.

1834] COLPORTAGE 399

Pyt, "I found the people of Beam utter strangers to the
doctrine of the Gospel, and consequently to the life of God.
I have left it (in 1830) in a very different condition. It is to
the Bible that the change must be attributed. The preaching
of the Gospel had little success before the establishment
of Bible Societies in Beam ; but when they had spread the
Word of the Lord, there was much inquiry about the truth,
and from that time the blessed work proceeded." And
probably it was with reference to this version that a lady
in sending a donation wrote to the Committee: " In the
secluded glens and remote valleys of the Pyrenees, I have
traced the footsteps of the British and Foreign Bible Society
and found in the shepherd's hut the precious Word of God
conveyed there by your agents."

The political revolution of 1830, which placed Louis
Philippe on the throne of France, removed many of the
obstacles that had hitherto interfered with the circulation of
the Scriptures. A deputation from the Society visited the
Agency and friends in Paris, arranged for a committee to
advise with Professor Kieffer in cases in which measures of
unusual magnitude might require immediate action, and
otherwise gave a fresh impulse to the work, the results of
which were manifested in the returns for the following year,
when 186,000 copies were required for the supply of the
depot. The members of the committee themselves disposed
of 20,000 copies ; 20,000 were supplied to the Minister
of Instruction, who appropriated 10,000 francs to the
purchase of "the first and most salutary of books"
for elementary schools ; M. Appert distributed 5610, and
other adherents and helpers zealously co-operated.

It was about this time that attention was specially
attracted to the advantages of colportage. Professor Kieffer
had already to some extent adopted the system, and in 1831
a correspondent wrote of the remarkable rate at which the
Bible was selling in the streets of the capital : "It is quite

400 THE AUXILIARIES IN FRANCE [1817-

an occupation, independently of our usual engagements, to
supply these colporteurs. Every day we have reports of a
curious and interesting nature ; as our men go up the streets
the people call from their shops, and are quite glad to be
able to purchase their volumes. They assure me that they
scarcely ever pass a corner of a street without placing one or
more with the porters who are stationed there."

It was, however, in the south of France that the system
appears to have been used with the most striking results.
The Messrs Courtois, three benevolent brothers, bankers in
Toulouse, sent out colporteurs to distribute Bibles and
Testaments at a low price from cottage to cottage, from
mansion to mansion, from hamlet to hamlet. UA number
of villages in the most retired situations, and whither a single
New Testament had perhaps never before penetrated, were
abundantly supplied." In fairs and at markets many copies
were sold, particularly in places wholly inhabited by Roman
Catholics. "In the Hautes and Basses Pyrenees, the
inveterate opposition which had existed for so many years
began to subside, and the Word of God was received with
thankfulness and joy by Roman Catholics." In a word, the
Bible ceased to be "a Protestant book."

The Evangelical Society of Geneva, founded in 1830,
with a special view to the benefit of France, still further
developed the system. Active and suitable men were
forthcoming, means were found for their support, and the
London Committee supplied the copies of Scripture that
were needed. In a little while thirteen " Bible missionaries,"
appointed to four different stations, were busily at work.
The example of the Geneva Society was followed at Basel,
and at Lyons and other French towns. In this manner was
gradually perfected the colportage method, which, a little
later, became a prominent characteristic in the operations
of the Paris Agency.

In 1832 the Plague swept over France, carrying off 18,000

DEATH OF PROFESSOR KIEFFER 401

in Paris alone between March and August. Professor
Kieffer escaped, but, worn out with many labours and cares,
died after a short illness in January 1833. F°r some time
his health had been declining, but he clung to his daily
duties, which had become his daily delight. "It is my
duty to go on working — nay, it is my delight ; yes, my
soul's delight!" On the 2ist he attended at the College
of France, but was too weak to deliver his lecture. Instead
of returning home, he went to the Bible depot to give
directions respecting various consignments. He could not
stand ; he could scarcely speak. The attendants carried
him to his house and to his bed, from which he never rose.
He died peacefully on the 29th, at the age of sixty-six.

The Bible Society deeply felt his loss, and warmly
expressed their recognition of his fifteen years of service,
during the last two of which as many as 347,541 copies of
the Holy Scriptures had passed through his hands. Of
this large number, the fruit of his watchfulness and his
voluminous correspondence, 40,000 Testaments had during
1832-3 been distributed in French schools, where lay the
chief hope of winning France to a religion based solely upon
the Gospel ; and the brothers of Toulouse, who had engaged
several new colporteurs, had received 800 Bibles and 13,200
Testaments.

Immediately after the decease of Professor Kieffer a depu-
tation was appointed by the Committee to visit Paris and
make arrangements for the future conduct of the Agency,
the operations of which had now assumed vast proportions.
An able and devoted successor was found in M. Victor de
Pressense, a gentleman of noble family, celebrated for its
loyalty to the Papacy. In accordance with the Roman
Catholic rule in the case of mixed marriages, he had been
brought up in the religion of his father and had been placed
under the care of the French refugee Jesuits in Holland,
whither the family had fled during the excesses of the Revolu-
VOL. I. 2 C

402 THE AUXILIARIES IN FRANCE [1817-

tion. The influence of a beloved and afflicted sister had
doubtless prepared his heart in his youth for the change
which, in after life, threw him into the ranks of the most
energetic promoters of the Bible cause.

Reference has already been made to the denominational
character and restricted operations of the French Protestant
Bible Society, and to the political circumstances which had
long restrained the activity of such associations. The time
had now come, it was felt, when an institution should be
established on the catholic basis and with the universal
scope of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Accordingly
in the course of 1833 the French and Foreign Bible Society
was formed ; its claims to assistance were laid before the
Committee by the Rev. Mark Wilks, and a grant of ^300,
with a set of stereotype plates, was voted with every good
wish for its prosperity.

Thus the period closed with new men and new and
enlarged prospects of usefulness. Friendly communications
were maintained by the Committee with the Protestant Bible
Society, but for some years its adherence to the Apocrypha
had restricted intercourse, and the aid extended to it was
confined to grants of the New Testament, and these almost
entirely for specific purposes.

During the whole of the second period the grants of
the Society for the work done in France amounted in the
aggregate to ^"75,862. A very large proportion of this
passed through the Agency at Paris, from which there
were issued Scriptures to the value of ^"3340 in 1831, of
^16,536 in 1832, of ^"13,034 in 1833, and of ^3837 in 1834,
for distribution among Roman Catholics and Protestants
without distinction. In addition, however, special grants
for Roman Catholics were voted during the period to the
amount of ^9580. Up to the date of the Apocrypha con-
troversy the Protestant Bible Society received ,£7145 ; after
that date the grants in aid did not exceed ^1200.

i834l THE WORK OF THE PERIOD 403

The review of the period may well close with the
testimony of the three brothers of Toulouse: — "A great
and good work has been done by the circulation of the
Bible and the New Testament ; the population have much
clearer ideas of what Christianity really is."

CHAPTER XXI

CATASTROPHE IN RUSSIA

WE left the Bible cause in Russia flourishing under the
protection of the gracious Autocrat who, in 1816, had
recognised the establishment of Bible Societies "as a
peculiar display of the mercy and grace of God to the
human race," and who had enrolled himself in the
Russian Society " in order that the beneficent light of
revelation might be shed among all nations subject to his
sceptre."

The sixth anniversary of the Russian Society was cele-
brated in the magnificent rotunda of the Taurida Palace, on
the 27th September 1819. The vast hall was nearly full ;
and as the choir in the lofty gallery raised their voices
in a hymn of praise and thanksgiving, the eye of the
spectator travelled with astonishment and pleasure over
the strangely composite assemblage. Nobles and bearded
moujiks were there, craftsmen and Ministers of State,
laymen and clerics, Christians of all denominations, Jews
and Gentiles ; stars and ribbons drew attention to dis-
tinguished administrators, to military and naval officers of
European reputation ; and one thought of that company
which John beheld, gathered "out of all nations and
kindreds and people and tongues," for in the throng
there were representatives of from twenty to thirty tribes
and languages, and many appeared in their striking
national costume.

On either hand of the Prince president sat a Russian

404

1817-1834] THE SIXTH ANNIVERSARY 405

archbishop and the metropolitans of the Russian, Catholic,
Uniate,1 and Moldavian Churches, besides a number of
the clergy of different orders and confessions. On the
right was a group of missionaries, who would soon be
scattered in remote stations, where they would be engaged
in preparing new versions, in distributing the Word of
Life, in expounding its promises to the wild sons of
Adam. In front sat a Georgian prince ; and next him —
perhaps the most interesting figures in that crowded hall —
the Mongolian chiefs who had translated for the Buriat
tribes on the shores of Lake Baikal the Gospel of St
Matthew (of which 2000 copies had just been printed),
and were now nearing the close of the Gospel of St
John. They had discovered "the pearl of a devout heart,"
and had written to their Prince: "We are fully and
firmly resolved to receive the doctrine of the saving God,
Jesus Christ. Although we are not yet acquainted with
the manners and usages of His religion, and when we
return home should find no teacher upon whose breast
we could lean our head, neither any house of God, yet
after the conviction we have obtained of the truth of the
Word of God, we can no longer endure the want of it ;
we must abide by this doctrine."

The report stated that in the Russian Empire there
were no fewer than 1 73 Auxiliaries and Associations. Yes ;
the banner of the sacred cause was flying in all the four
winds. An Auxiliary had been founded at Kieff, "the
Jerusalem of Russia" —the Bethlehem rather, for there,
when in 988 Vladimir shattered his silver-headed and
gold-bearded idol, Perun, and flung it into the Dnieper,
Christ the Lord was born ; Auxiliaries had been founded
in Taganrog and Tcherkask of the Don Cossacks (with
Hetman Platoff among the vice-presidents) ; in Odessa,

1 Churches recognising the supremacy of the I'ope while retaining the Greco-
Slavic rite.

406 CATASTROPHE IN RUSSIA [1817-

the port of traders with Turkey and the thoroughfare of
pilgrims to Jerusalem and Mecca ; in Orel and Vladimir
and Kostroma, turning northward ; in Penza and at
Simbirsk and Kasan, turning east ; at Georgievsk, which
completed the chain between Astrakhan and the Georgian
Society at Tiflis ; at Poltava, in Bessarabia, at Minsk and
Grodno, on the west ; in Courland and Liefland, Dorpatia
and Esthonia towards the north ; in the frugal, romantic
lake-land of the Finns. And beyond the eastern mountain
barrier Bible Societies were springing up in the Asiatic
wildernesses of the Empire. There was one at Tobolsk, the
populous mart of the Chinese caravans and the rendezvous of
the Siberian fur-trade ; another at Krasnoiarsk, on the great
road from Tomsk to Irkutsk ; a third at Irkutsk ; and in
the towns still further east, at Nertchinsk, and Yakutsk,1
and Okhotsk, whose log-houses run out into the waters
of the Pacific, there was eager questioning as to this
wonderful revival.

During the six years of its existence, the Russian Bible
Society, according to the report, had printed (including
editions in the press) 371,600 copies of the Scriptures, and
of these 120,105 had been circulated. These had threaded
the passes of the Caucasus in cart-loads ; they were read
by the Kirghese on the steppe ; they had reached the
prisoners in the silver mines at Nertchinsk ; the ships
which sailed from Kronstadt on a voyage round the globe
had taken a supply of Sclavonic Scriptures for Kamstchatka,
and copies in English, French, and German, Spanish and

1 In 1820 a Bible Association in connection with the Irkutsk Auxiliary was
founded at Yakutsk (in a latitude a little further north than Cape Farewell in
Greenland), and nearly ^35 was subscribed at its establishment. " It has been very
pleasing to hear," wrote Dr Pinkerton, " that every family in the seaport town of
Ochotsk, at the very extremity of Siberia, had been furnished with a copy of the
Scriptures, through the generosity of Captain Gordon, who, on his stay at that place
(which contains about 150 families) purchased Bibles from Irkutsk, and supplied
them all." We have already seen Captain J. E. Gordon, R.N., for a moment.
He moved one of the resolutions in connection with the Tests Controversy. He
was for some time M.P. for Dundalk, travelled through the East, and was well
known as a true Christian and sturdy Protestant.

i834] SCRIPTURES IN MANY TONGUES 407

Portuguese, to supply the inhabitants of the different coasts
at which they might touch.

Addressing the hushed audience, Prince Galitzin spoke
of a singular and most striking feature in the accounts of
that vast field in which the Word of Life was being sown,
namely, the indefatigable zeal with which the Holy
Scriptures were being translated into the languages of all
the unenlightened nations scattered over the face of the
earth. In Russia it was not otherwise. " In the different
Governments, both near and remote ; in the desert and in
the valley ; in snow-clad Siberia and upon the mountains
of Caucasus and Uralia, were to be found lovers of the
Word of God who were engaged in rendering the Gospels
and other parts of the Bible into the languages and dialects
spoken by the tribes who inhabited Russia. For what
end did they thus toil, what prospects of advantage could
prove an inducement to undertake a species of labour which
promised to the labourer so little renown? The solution
of the question lay in the power of that Word itself
which these men were translating."

There was indeed already a very Babel of tongues ;
the speech of literary nations, the dialects of half-civilized
hordes, of traders and hunters, shepherds and trappers
and fishers, nomads of the tundra and tillers of land on
the edge of the "virgin forest," the tai'ga ; Siberian Tartar,
Tungusian, Ostjak and Samoyede, Tartar Hebrew, Nogai'
Tartar, Wogul and Tschapoginian, Tscheremiss and
Tschuwash, and a score of others.

The Russian Society had printed authorised versions in
fourteen languages and new translations in twelve, and had
distributed Bibles and Testaments imported from foreign
countries in thirteen others, while in seven more tongues
translations were in progress — in all, forty-six different forms
of human speech.

A change, the Prince declared, was observable in the

408 CATASTROPHE IN RUSSIA [1817-

country. Soldiers and sailors had learned to value the
Scriptures, and the use of them was becoming general.
In many villages the people gathered on Sundays and
holy days to listen to the divine message, and the young
were instructing their parents who had never been taught
to read. In obedience to the will of the Czar the reading
of the Word of Life had been introduced into schools and
seminaries, and that would doubtless lay a foundation for
the piety of the new generation, and promote the Kingdom
of Christ in the earth.

During the six years the total receipts had amounted to
1,361,499 roubles (about ^56,729), and the expenditure
had been 1,244,362 (^51,848).

While Dr Paterson and Dr Henderson l were watching
the incidents at this interesting gathering in the Taurida
Palace, Dr Pinkerton was in the plague-stricken city of
the Golden Horn. He had left Paris, nearly seven months
before, on a Biblical tour which was to take him through
France and Italy to Malta and the Greek Isles, to Corinth
and Athens, possibly to Smyrna, to Constantinople (whence
a visit might be made to Trebizond), and thence by way
of Salonica, over the Balkans to Bucharest in Wallachia
and Jassy in Moldavia, and so into Russian territory, and
home to St Petersburg. His principal objects were to
gather information as to the existence of certain versions and
MSS. and respecting the prevailing dearth of Scriptures,
and to devise measures to promote the purposes of the
Society. At the daily risk of infection in the reeking
lanes of Pera, he arranged for the revision of the MS. of
the Turkish Bible, the translation and printing of the
Old and New Testaments in Modern Greek, the preparation
of a New Testament in Albanian, the issue of the Turkish

1 Henderson received his diploma of Doctor of Philosophy from Kiel in June
1816. At the celebration o'f the tercentenary of the Reformation in 1817 the
Czar conferred the degree of D.D. on Paterson, in recognition of his services in
connection with the Russian Bible Society.

DR PINKERTON'S TOUR 409

text in Greek characters, the distribution of the Scriptures
at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and enlisted in the
Bible cause the interest of Gregory, the Greek Patriarch
of Constantinople, who dreamed not of the tragic end
which was drawing near.

Then he began to spit blood, "fell to pieces just as
he had finished his business," and the journey on horse-
back to Bucharest had to be abandoned. " My friends
are engaged in procuring me a passage to Odessa," he
wrote. "It is a dangerous time of the year to cross the
Black Sea. But my dangers are on every side, and my
greatest, I fear, are within me. Oh, let me share your
sympathy and prayers ! " The captain of the vessel which
was to have conveyed him, and aboard of which, in the
captain's cabin and on his mattress, Pinkerton had slept,
manifested symptoms which caused the latter to leave the
vessel ; and when, in consequence of the captain's death,
the vessel put back to Bayukdere, the case was pronounced
to be one of plague. On the 8th November he sailed,
and reached Odessa on the i3th, somewhat improved by
the sea air. Here he saw a copy of the four Gospels in
Modern Russ — so much of the Czar's own project had at
last been realized !

In one of his letters in quarantine at Odessa he relates
a "providential interposition" which reminds the reader
of the night on which Ahasuerus could not sleep. In
the winter of 1817 when Pinkerton was busy with one
of the sons of King Heraclius of Georgia in preparing
type of the civil character for a new edition of the Georgian
Testament, their talk fell on the difficulties of producing
the Old Testament on account of the inaccuracy of the
printed text. The Prince mentioned that while lately
reading in the annals of his nation he had come upon a
passage in which it was stated that in the eighth century
St Euphemius had translated the Holy Scriptures into

410 CATASTROPHE IN RUSSIA [1817-

Georgian and had deposited a copy in the monastery on
Mount Athos. Pinkerton informed Prince Galitzin and
urged him to make enquiry whether the precious MS.
was still in existence. The librarian of the monastery
replied that they were yet in possession of the MS. in two
parchment volumes, "in the hand-writing of Euphemius";
that from time immemorial the most terrible excommunica-
tion and anathemas had been pronounced by the Holy
Synod and the Patriarchs against those who should dispose
of or carry away a single volume of that library, but that
a faithful transcript might be taken of that or any other
volume which should be found salutary or useful. At
Constantinople Pinkerton had seen the archimandrite of
the monastery, and he had confirmed the statements of
the librarian.

The last three nights and days of 1819 the traveller
sledged over the boundless fields of snow and ice north of
Kieff, in an excessive cold of from 25 to 30 degrees of frost,
and passed New Year's Day with the friends of the Bible
Society of Orel. Thence he proceeded to Moscow, hearing
in every town and village of the hundreds who had lost their
lives in the deadly frost and blinding drift of the i6th of
December. On ,the i3th January 1820 he reached St
Petersburg, and home and wife and children, "after a
separation of twenty long months." "A sweet little girl,
about a year old, was laid in my arms for the first time ; my
only boy, who was an infant when I left him, I found
running about, and prattling in two languages, English and
Russ." But all the news he heard was not joyful. Dr
Henderson — here on his way to take up his residence at
Astrakhan — "had been thrown from his travelling carriage
near Gothenburg, had dislocated his shoulder and lost the
proper use of his right arm." He had been married to
Miss Susannah Kennion at London Stone Church by Mr
Owen in May 1818, and was making his circuitous way

FROM ST PETERSBURG TO TIFLIS 411

among the Prussian and Swedish Auxiliaries to St
Petersburg when the accident happened. "Paterson had
lost his second wife, who was interred only three days before
I reached the gates of St Petersburg." She died of typhus
and was lovingly tended by Mrs Henderson during her
illness.

In this double picture we have an epitome of the story of
the Russian Bible Society — a type indeed of all Bible work —
with its spiritual conquests, its human labours, its journey-
ings often, its accidents, its joys, its losses, its bereavements.

The death of Mrs Paterson led to another long journey.
For Paterson new scenes, new thoughts, new activities were
indispensable, and it was decided that Dr Henderson should
accompany his friend. The spring of 1821, however, had
arrived before the necessary arrangements could be com-
pleted. Furnished with letters to all the civil and ecclesi-
astical authorities on their proposed route, they set out on
the 1 4th March. They passed through two and twenty
provinces of the colossal Empire ; visited Volhynia, Podolia,
and Bessarabia on the west, the Crimea on the south,
Astrakhan on the east, and crossed the Caucasus to Tiflis ;
attended many public meetings, consulted with the principal
officers and friends of nearly half the Auxiliaries of Russia,
and contributed materially to the consolidation and extension
of the work. The record of their journey is still interesting
reading,1 but as one turns the page the shadows of com-
ing events seem constantly falling on the incidents which
marked their progress.

They were present, with a numerous company of Russian,
Armenian, Greek and Georgian clergy, at the anniversary of
the Moscow Auxiliary, and heard Seraphim, the Metro-
politan of the ancient capital, deliver an admirable address,
which closed with an imprecation of Woe, woe, woe, on the

1 Report 1822, pp. 1-27, and Henderson, Biblical Researches and Travels in
Russia.

4i2 CATASTROPHE IN RUSSIA [1817-

man who should do aught to impede the circulation of the
Holy Scriptures in Russia, or in the world at large.
Here the first deep shadow falls. That celebrated address
produced its effect on Prince Galitzin and the Czar ; on the
death of Michael, the Metropolitan of St Petersburg and
Novgorod, to whose stool he aspired, Seraphim's ambition
was gratified. But no sooner did he find himself head of
the Russian Church than he became the deadly enemy both
of the Prince and the Bible Society.

It was in this spring that the Greek War of Independence
began in Wallachia and Moldavia. On the 22nd April
the enraged Mussulmans seized the aged Gregory, the
Greek Patriarch, and on the following morning he was
ignominiously hanged under the shadow of his own
Cathedral. As the travellers passed southwards, they came
in sight of encampments and hostile troops, and "near the
Pruth they had a view of the spot where five hundred
partisans of the Hetaireia were gathered under the red-cross
banner of Ypsilanti."1 At Odessa, on the iQth June — two
months after his murder — they attended the splendid
obsequies of the Greek Patriarch, whose corpse had under-
gone strange vicissitudes before it found the quiet of the
grave. "For three days it had hung at the gate of the
Patriarchal Palace ; for three days more had been the object
of Jewish scorn ; and a day and a night had been in the
deep."

Early in August they reached Taganrog. It was well
that the future was hidden from them ; that they could not
foresee that in little more than four years the Czar would
be lying here in his shroud, and the days of the Russian
Bible Society would be numbered. Dr Henderson was seized
with ague, which clung to him through the remainder of the
journey, and more than once threatened to terminate fatally.
At Novo Tcherkask, where they heard of the death of

1 Memoir of the Rev. £. Ifendsrson, D.D., p. 251.

i834l THE RUSS NEW TESTAMENT 413

Napoleon, his sufferings were so severe that the Cossack
landlady in her pity brought him some earth from the
consecrated graveyard — an "infallible specific," no doubt,
when applied with the sexton's spade. Depression and
anxiety had much to do with the recurrence of this illness,
for what seemed his duty in connection with the Turkish
New Testament pointed to a severance of his connection with
the British and Foceign Bible Society. At Karass he stood
by the grave of Douglas Cousin, "with whom in early life
he had taken sweet counsel about the things of God " ; with
an escort of a hundred soldiers, about twenty Cossacks, and
two pieces of cannon (travelling sometimes in the darkness,
with no light but the match burning on the gun-carriage),
they threaded the foot-hills of the Caucasus ; crossed the
mountain range, and reached Tiflis in November. They
learned that, owing to the disturbed state of Turkey, the
deputation which was to have gone to Mount Athos to obtain
a copy of the ancient Georgian Old Testament had not been
able to proceed. Death, too, had carried off the secretary
and most of the committee of the Georgian Bible Society.
They set matters in train for a thorough reorganisation ; and
as they had sent in their resignation to the London Com-
mittee, and could not in the circumstances continue their
journey into Persia, they turned their steps homewards.

A week or two later, Prince Galitzin presented to the
Czar on his birthday, i2th December, the first complete
copy of the New Testament in Russ. Thirty thousand
copies quickly passed through the press; 15,000 copies of
the Book of Psalms in Russ had already been published,
and considerable progress had been made with a transla-
tion of the whole of the Old Testament. During the year
large editions had been issued by the Russian Society of
the Bible in Greek and German, of the Polish New
Testament (Wuyk), and of the four Gospels and the Acts in
Kalmuk and Mongolian ; and it had undertaken editions

4H CATASTROPHE IN RUSSIA [1817-

of the Bulgarian New Testament, of the Gospel of St
Matthew in Zirian (a dialect of Tobolsk, Perm, and
Vologda), and a Hebrew version of St Matthew and the
Epistle to the Hebrews, for the benefit of the Jews. The
expenses were heavy, great sacrifices had been made by
the benevolent in Russia for the relief of Greek refugees,
so that much could not be expected from them, and the
Earl Street Committee, with its usual promptitude and
liberality, voted ^2000 to meet the difficulties of the situation.

On their return to St Petersburg in February 1822, Dr
Paterson was appointed to the control of the executive
of the Russian Society, and Dr Henderson was retained
to supervise the publication of versions in the Oriental
languages. At the anniversary meeting in June it was
stated that the Russian Society was in co-operation with 267
Auxiliaries and Associations. During the nine years of
its existence it had printed, or caused to be printed at its
expense, 507,600 copies of the Scriptures in twenty-six
different languages, and had circulated 308,643 copies ; and
the receipts had been ,£102,889, against an expenditure of
;£ioi,666. By the close of 1823 there were 289 Auxiliaries,
the distribution of the Scriptures had increased to 448,109
copies, and the total receipts from the beginning stood at
;£ 145,640.

These were the last golden days in the story of the
Russian Bible Society. Many powerful influences were
converging towards its overthrow ; and if that unseen hand
which alone could have averted the catastrophe was with-
held, doubtless in this too the ends of a wise providence
were accomplished. Certain of the clergy began to take
alarm at the change which was being produced in the
minds of the people by the reading of the Scriptures. One
typical instance may be given. A lad had been reading
to his grandfather the forty-fourth chapter of Isaiah ; the
hoary-headed Russian listened amazed to the folly of the

i834] INTRIGUES AGAINST THE SOCIETY 415

idolater — how he takes of the trees of the forest, and with
a part roasts flesh and eats and is satisfied, and warms
himself by the fire he has made: "And the residue thereof
he maketh a god, even his graven image : he falleth down
unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith,
Deliver me, for thou art my god " ; and as he listened the
force of truth prevailed, and he rose and tore down the
sacred eikons before which he had bowed from childhood.
The offender wras sentenced by the Holy Synod to a heavy
punishment, but instead of ratifying the judgment the Czar
referred to the ukase of Peter the Great regarding the
destruction of sacred pictures. This ukase was unique :
for the first offence it prescribed that the man should be sent
for eight days to a monastery ; for the second, for a fort-
night, and "let him be taught the catechism by a priest";
for the third the instructions were the same as Dogberry's,
"Why, then, take no note of him, but let him go," for he
is incorrigible. The Czar's leniency showed the enemies
of the Bible Society that if they were to exercise their
inquisitorial power, it must be by working on his anxieties
and fears.

Another hostile influence was that of the Jesuits. They
attributed their expulsion in 1820 to Prince Galitzin, then
Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Public Instruction,
and had formed designs of the keenest animosity against
him and the great society of which he was the active spirit.
They had their agents and emissaries everywhere, and
they did all in their power to impress the public mind
and the authorities that one common object, the disorganisa-
tion of society, leagued together the Carbonari of Italy, the
Burschenschaft of Germany, the English Radicals, and the
members of the Bible Society. The Czar himself was
timid, and the memory of his father's tragic end probably
weighed now more heavily on his mind than it had done
when he was a younger and more hopeful man ; but he

416 CATASTROPHE IN RUSSIA [1817-

was too well acquainted with the personnel and the opera-
tions of the Bible Society to associate them with political
conspiracies. The revolutionary movements in Spain,
Piedmont, Naples, Sicily, had, however, affected him ;
he had grown doubtful of the wisdom of enlightening the
people, and suspicious of all unions and combinations.
Stronger and more daring men had taken fright at these
popular upheavals ; the Powers had discussed them in
conference ; and Alexander had returned from Laybach
disturbed and depressed by Metternich's subtle warnings.

The reins of government were in the hands of "that
enemy of all good," the Count Aretcheof, who had proved
the ruin of his father Paul. One of the Count's creatures
was Photi, a fanatical archimandrite of the Greek Church,
who laboured hard to bring back the darkest ages of
superstition and priestly tyranny. "He was a decided
enemy to the Bible Society," writes Paterson,1 "and, I
have no doubt, was a tool in the hands of the Jesuits, and
that they, through Metternich, influenced Aretcheof."
Seraphim was now Metropolitan of St Petersburg, and was
at last able to throw aside the mask of hypocrisy.

The intricate story of intrigue cannot be told here. Prince
Galitzin ceased to be " Ministre des Cultes"; in obedience
to the Czar's advice he resigned his position as president
of the Russian Bible Society ; but the ukase of the iyth
April 1824, which appointed Seraphim in his place, expressly
ordered that all papers, etc., connected with the society
should, as hitherto, be presented to his Majesty through
the Prince. So far, the hostile influences had been
triumphant, but Galitzin had not been ruined, and the
society was still sheltered by imperial patronage.

In his capacity as the new president, Seraphim was
received with the respect due to his office and with the
congratulations of men who had learned to think no evil.

1 77m Book for Every Land, p. 364.

i«34] THE POLICY OF SERAPHIM 417

His Eminence "expressed a lively hope that the Lord
would be pleased to shower down His blessings on the
labours of the committee, and grant them His gracious
aid in their work." At the desire of the Earl Street
committee, Lord Teignmouth sent a cordial greeting to
the Metropolitan. Comparatively little was done, how-
ever, after the accession of the new president ; the
committee seldom met ; one of the secretaries had with-
drawn with the Prince. Dr Paterson and Dr Henderson
promoted, as far as they were able, the circulation of the
editions already printed, and the Protestant branch
societies, under the care of Count Lieven, went on with
their work uninterrupted. Lieven was not afraid to speak his
mind freely to the Metropolitan ; none of that faction had
the power to injure him in the eyes of his imperial master.
At the end of the year the printer, one of the stereotype
founders, and the English journeymen binders left for
England ; already a number of the Russian workmen had
been dismissed ; still the Scotsmen remained at their
posts, perfecting the works they had in hand, so that,
should they be obliged to leave, there might be a large
stock of bound books which, it was hoped, would eventually
find their way into the homes of the people. It seemed as
though the policy of the Metropolitan was to let the Russian
Bible Society decline into dissolution and oblivion through
sheer inactivity.

In the early spring of 1825, however, he summoned a
meeting of the committee, not at the imperial Bible
House, but in his own rooms at the Nevsky Monastery.
To the amazement of the members, he inveighed against
the indiscriminate distribution of the Scriptures, which, he
complained, were being read without the guidance of the
priests, and that would lead to the abandonment of the
Church — the words seem an echo of the evils predicted in
England years before and so completely falsified by ex-
YOL. I. 2 P

4i8 CATASTROPHE IN RUSSIA [1817-

perience — and to all manner of disorders. Count Lieven
protested against any circumscription of the Word of God,
but it was clear that Seraphim was prepared for the
suppression of the organisation. Shortly afterwards Dr
Henderson returned home, but Dr Paterson still found
work to his hands at St Petersburg.

The end, however, was not far distant. Heart-sick at
the discovery of a conspiracy in which the leaders were
men whom he trusted and on whom he had conferred
many favours ; indifferent, it would seem, to a prolongation
of his life, Alexander succumbed to typhus, at Taganrog,
on the ist December 1825. At his funeral the members
of all corporate bodies, the committees of all societies, and
all persons of rank, lay and clerical, were ordered to join
the procession at the city gates, but the Russian Bible
Society — the one society which owed more than all the rest
to his patronage and personal favour — was overlooked.

On the 1 2th April 1826 the Emperor Nicholas issued a
rescript for the temporary suspension of all the operations
of the Russian Bible Society, with the exception of the
sale of the copies of the Scriptures already printed and in
the depots. In England the lovers of the Bible looked
eagerly forward to the time when the edict would be
withdrawn ; and at the anniversary gathering of that year
a hopeful reference was made to the fact that his Imperial
Majesty had confirmed his own subscription to the Russian
Bible Society. But the evil genius of the institution was
insidiously at work. Seraphim represented to the Emperor
that if the Russian Bible Society were placed under the
management of the Holy Synod, the circulation of the
Scriptures would be as efficient as heretofore, and less
expensive, and the burden of his responsibility, as
president of the one and head of the other, would be
lightened for his aged shoulders. On the i5th of August
appeared a ukase giving effect to this arrangement, but

i834] SUSPENSION OF THE RUSSIAN B.S. 419

happily allowing the sale at the depots to proceed as
usual. These were stocked with about 200,000 copies,
and events amply justified the foresight and energy of
the Scottish agents in making this provision.

With his unfailing spirit of helpfulness, Dr Paterson
wound up the affairs of the British and Foreign Bible
Society so far as they were connected with its Russian
associate, and reluctantly prepared to abandon the field
of his exertions. And here we obtain a favourable glimpse
of the personality of the new Emperor. " Why should
Dr Paterson leave Russia? He may still be usefully
employed in promoting the circulation of the Scriptures."
"The Holy Synod do not desire his services," replied Prince
Galitzin. "Why?" "Because they look upon him as a
heretic!" "A heretic! I cannot endure such bigotry!"
Statecraft and priestcraft, however, carried the day. The
splendid organisation which had begun to bring within
the pale of one vast brotherhood the Samoyede on the icy
shores of the Arctic seas, the trader of Okhotsk, the Mon-
golian tribes under the shadow of the Great Wall, the
sturgeon-fishers of Baikal, the horsemen of the Scythian
steppes, the bark-eaters of Karelia, and the cavern-dwellers
of Inkerman, was arrested and dismantled in the heyday
of its activity. Shortly after he left Russia in 1827, Dr
Paterson received the good news that the Emperor had
sanctioned the establishment of a Protestant Bible Society,
with Count (now Prince) Lieven as president.

During this period grants amounting to ^6870 were
voted by the London Committee for the promotion of the
Bible cause in Russia and Finland. ^4100 went direct
to the Russian Bible Society, and over ^1000 was dis-
tributed among the Finnish Auxiliaries. During the
fourteen years in which the British and Foreign Bible
Society conducted its operations in the dominions of the
Czar, its donations had amounted to ,£22,949.

420 CATASTROPHE IN RUSSIA [1817-

The work of the Russian Bible Society was briefly
summarised by Dr Paterson at the anniversary meeting
at the Freemasons' Hall in 1828. "We were enabled," he
said, "to translate the Scriptures, or parts of the Scriptures,
into seventeen languages, in which they had never before
been printed. We printed them in all in thirty different
languages, and put them in circulation in forty-five. The
whole number of copies of the Scriptures which were
printed was no fewer than 876,106; and when I quitted
Petersburg in May last, I left in the depository of that
city about 200,000 copies, so that, making allowance for
what may remain unsold, it will appear that 600,000 copies
have been put in circulation."

In the sequel to these events, God found hands to
shelter the lamp which it was not His will to have quenched.
The Rev. Richard Knill, of the London Missionary Society,
who had served in India, was at this time minister of the
Protestant congregation (chiefly English and Americans)
in St Petersburg. Two years after the suppression of the
Russian Societies, he was preparing for the departure of
a young missionary, when a peasant women called at his
house. Picking up one of the Bibles he was packing, he
asked, "Can you read?" "Yes," she answrered, "in my
own language — in Finnish." "Here is a Finnish Bible;
read it." She complied, and handed him back the book.
"Have you a Bible?" he asked. "No, I never had one;
I never -had enough to buy one." Even now she had
but a rouble, and to her astonishment and delight
he gave her the Bible for that sum. "Go, and tell your
neighbours," he said, "that if any of them wish to have
a Bible, they shall have one for a rouble." The news
spread ; in six weeks he had sold eight hundred ; people
travelled sixty versts (nearly forty miles), and arrived at
daybreak, so as not to lose their opportunity. He had
not been prepared for so large a demand, and questioned

i«34] A NEW START 421

whether his circumstances justified his incurring so much
expense. His wife encouraged him : "It is God's work!"
and as he still hesitated, a funeral passed at the end of the
street. "There is no work nor device in the grave . . . .
whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."
In a little while he was distributing Testaments and
Psalters in Russ — with trepidation, and in twos and threes,
for the Holy Synod had put its veto on the Czar's version ;
afterwards more boldly. Friends in Scotland and England,
friends in India, sent him assistance. Then the London
Committee came to his aid ; first a thousand volumes in
Russ, German and Finnish were placed at his disposal ;
in a month or two they had been disposed of, carried
away to villages five, six, seven hundred, a thousand
miles inland ; then 2000 volumes, and before the year
(1829) closed they too had vanished, and 4000 more were
voted. In 1830 he established small depots in Finland,
at Karass, Astrakhan, Selinginsk, Tiflis, Shusha ; and the
Scriptures in many tongues had free course. Up to that
year, from September 1828, he had distributed 22,000
copies. At the anniversary meeting in May 1834 he
told the moving story of his undertakings ; by that time
30,000 volumes had been dispersed. " Most of these
passed through my own hands ; and when I had not
strength to circulate them, friends were raised up to
do it."

Nor were friends wanting elsewhere, though the work of
all cannot be recorded in these pages. Professor Sartorius
of Dorpat had paid especial attention to the recruits,
young Esthonian peasants, who were "frequently drafted
into Russian regiments, which were stationed at a very
great distance from their homes, and in which they were
obliged to serve twenty-five years without ever hearing a
Protestant clergyman address them in their native tongue."
Chiefly through his advocacy, the Dorpat Bible Society

422 CATASTROPHE IN RUSSIA [1817 1834

was revived in 1832, and connected with the Protestant
Bible Society in St Petersburg.

Kindly relations were also maintained with Finland.
After the disastrous fire of 1827, which spared scarcely
more than a hundred of the thousand houses of Abo, and
destroyed the stereotype plates and printed stock of the
Finnish Bible Society, the Committee despatched to Arch-
bishop Tengstrom 500 Swedish Bibles and 1000 Finnish
Testaments of a specially printed edition.

In the meantime the Protestant Bible Society at St
Petersburg was pursuing its course in silence and without
molestation. From its institution down to the 3ist March
1832 it had distributed 3015 Bibles and 8842 New
Testaments in ten languages, and nearly half of these
had passed through the committees and correspondents
of the branches connected with it.

In the latter part of this period the London Committee's
grants to Russia amounted to ^2056.

CHAPTER XXII

THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA

AT the close of the first period, it will be remembered,
Austria, in obedience to the Holy See, had shut the gates
of its vast dominions against the Bible. Operations were
brusquely arrested in Bohemia ; consignments of the
Scriptures were seized ; the Hungarian Auxiliary at
Pressburg was abolished, and over a million and a half
of Protestants were denied the privilege of obtaining the
Word of God at a price which brought it within reach of
their extreme poverty.

In Bavaria the same rigorous measures were taken.
The Branch at Nuremberg — the seat of the first of all
the continental Auxiliaries — was suppressed in 1817, and
though the interdict was withdrawn in 1823, the work of
organised distribution was suspended for seven years.
During that interval, however, much was accomplished by
individual enterprise, and even among the Roman Catholics
there were devout and distinguished men who apparently
considered the earnest injunctions of Pius VI. ample
justification for disregarding the prohibition of his suc-
cessor. Applications were made from the remotest parts of
Bavaria, Swabia, and the Rhenish provinces for Gosner's
New Testament. The Bishop of Constance, Baron von
Wessenberg, and many of the clergy and laity, continued
to distribute Testaments among the German and French
Roman Catholics of Switzerland and adjoining countries.
Professor Van Ess supplied in scores of thousands his own

423

424 THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA

version of the New Testament, which had received the
approval of the Bishop of Fulda and other ecclesiastical
dignitaries.

In Central Europe a lively interest in the societies was
aroused at the Tercentenary of the Reformation, which
was celebrated about the beginning of November 1817.
Solemn services were held, collections were made on
behalf of the funds, and in nearly all the Protestant
churches Bibles were distributed to the young people,
and especially to the children of the poor, as memorials
of the festival of emancipated Germany.

In the summer of 1818 Dr Pinkerton made a journey
from St Petersburg to Basel. Visiting prisons and hospitals,
in the hands of whose poor inmates no one had yet thought
of placing the consolation of the Gospel, distributing the
Hebrew Scriptures among the Jews, conferring with Bible
committees, suggesting Ladies' Associations, promoting
the formation of Auxiliaries, promising the aid of the
British and Foreign Bible Society in the printing of large
editions of Bibles and Testaments in various languages,
he traversed White Russia and Samogitia, paused at
Memel and Konigsberg, travelled by way of Thorn,
Posen, Breslau and Dresden to Berlin, and proceeded
thence through Hanover, Frankfort and Carlsrtihe to
Switzerland. " Everywhere in the hospitals," he wrote,
"the Bible was welcomed gladly among the sick and
wounded." In the five prisons at Konigsberg "many
wept bitterly, probably at the recollection of the days of
their youth, when they read the Bible at school, or in the
habitation of their parents, but suffered not its principles
to sink deep into their hearts. The keepers of the prisons
themselves, and a member of the society who went with
me, frequently wept like children."

Jn compliance with his advice, the Saxon Bible Society
undertook to despatch a supply of the Scriptures to the

"WE MUST AT LAST RETURN" 425

Wends, and to take advantage of the promised co-operation
of several ladies of title in the establishment of Female
Auxiliaries. The Prussian Bible Society he found in
prosperous condition ; and he prevailed on the Brunswick
Society not only to provide prisons, hospitals, and other
public institutions with the Word of God, but to revive
the ancient statute of the Duchy, which had fallen into
abeyance during the late wars and social troubles, that
every newly-married couple should possess a Bible at
their union, and that every child should receive one at
confirmation. In connection with the Universities, he
observed with delight that the Scriptures had very con-
siderably recovered their lost ascendency over the minds
of the learned. A Bible Society which had been formed
at Gottingen numbered among its members not only all
the clergy of the town but professors of the University ;
and at Heidelberg they "were heartily willing to join their
colleagues in Gottingen in building up that which many,
alas ! had spent the greater part of their lives in endeavouring
to pull down. One of the chief anti-supernaturalists of
the age, on being lately asked by one of his learned
brethren how it came to pass that he now spoke so favourably
of Christianity, replied, ' We must at last return to the
good old way.' '

At Basel Dr Pinkerton met Mr Owen, who, as we
have seen, had gone abroad chiefly for the benefit of his
health, and who, on his way from Paris, had visited the
Auxiliary at Strasburg and promised in the name of the
parent Society a donation of ^200 in furtherance of an
important edition of the French Scriptures. At Basel
various plans were adopted for the consolidation and
extension of the work of the Auxiliary in that city, and
substantial assistance was given in the form of two grants
of j£5°° each. They went on together to Neuchatel, where
they parted. Pinkerton crossed the lake, and at Yverdun

426 THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA [1817-

made the acquaintance of the distinguished Pestalozzi, who
for the last fourteen years had been carrying out his scheme
of education at the castle assigned to him by the Govern-
ment. " My conversations with this venerable old man,"
wrote the traveller, " turned chiefly on the necessity of
imparting genuine Christian principles along with the
very first rudiments of human learning. Before leaving
me he assured me that he would introduce the reading of
the Holy Scriptures more generally and frequently in his
seminary, now consisting of one hundred boys." And to
enable him to carry out this project at once, Pinkerton
presented him with thirty German and French Bibles and
Testaments in the name of the Society.

Most of the important Auxiliaries in Switzerland shared
the advantage of Mr Owen's experience and the promises
of financial assistance which he was authorised to make.
At Geneva, where feeling ran high in consequence of
religious party divisions and grave accusations of heterodoxy,
Mr Owen required all his tact, good feeling and Christian
principles in meeting the members of the Auxiliary. He
succeeded, however, in making arrangements for the
establishment of a depot, to be supplied, at the expense
of the British and Foreign Bible Society, with a sufficient
stock of the Scriptures in French, German, English and
Italian, and for the printing and distribution by the
Auxiliaries of Geneva, Lausanne, and Neuchatel of a
monthly publication founded on the Monthly Extracts of
the parent institution. These measures, it was reported
in the following year, had resulted in a distribution
more than double that of 1818. It is interesting to note
in this connection that copies of De Sacy's New Testament
were placed in the keeping of "the pious and hospitable
monks of the Great St Bernard ; for it appeared to us,"
wrote the secretary of the Geneva Auxiliary, "that in this
asylum of peace and safety, where the traveller finds a

THE PRUSSIAN AND SAXON B.S.S. 427

shelter against the frost and a protection from other
dangers, his soul, open to solemn impressions, could
not fail to lift up itself to God, and with delight draw
from His Word the light which lightens man in the paths
of life." A pleasant thought that the gift of the Bible
Society had found a home on that spot among the peaks
of everlasting snow, which had been held sacred for thirty
centuries ; where, on the altar of rude boulders, sacrifice
had once been offered to Pen, the god of the mountains ;
where, ages afterwards, the Roman legionaries and the
chapmen of the East had left their thank-offerings at
the shrine of Pennine Jove ; where at last, in the tenth
Christian century, Bernard de Menthon founded the
hospice which still bears his name.

In this year (1819) thirty-three Auxiliaries, besides
Associations, were connected with the Prussian Bible
Society, and many of these had put themselves in direct
communication with the London Committee, and had
received grants in aid. During the twelve months closing
in October they had distributed 13,750 Bibles and 11,550
Testaments. The Prussian Society itself had been five
years in existence in its nationalised form, and in that
period had circulated 22,724 Bibles and 8900 Testaments
in German, Polish, Bohemian, Wendish and Swedish.
It included among its members and executive officers
many of the most distinguished in the land, and the
King still continued to express his interest and approval
in regard to its work.

The Saxon Society had, in the same time, issued
15,091 Bibles and 6216 New Testaments. The Wends
had received the Bible in their own tongue with delight,
and the whole edition of 3000 (which the London Committee
had aided with a grant of ^300) had been exhausted.
Another was asked for ; and to relieve the embarrassment
of the society in face of the demands it could not satisfy,

428 THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA [1817-

another grant of ^300 was made by the London Committee
in furtherance of an edition of 5000 copies.

In spite of all hostility, Gosner's New Testament was
being dispersed in large quantities. "Jesuits, Franciscans,
and all the clergy, high and low, learned and unlearned,"
wrote Van Ess, "have set their faces against it, and are
resolutely determined to exterminate it. The Papal Bull
is equally severe." But the demand was so great that it
was scarcely possible to procure a sufficient number of
copies. A letter from a shepherd at Wertheim, in the
hill-pastures on the edge of the Main, shows that it
was not among the well-to-do in towns and villages alone
that the gladness of the Gospel tidings had spread. "As
I am a lover of religious books, and have heard a great
deal of your society [Frankfort], I am sure you will not
refuse to give the Catholic Old Testament to a poor
shepherd who cannot hear the Word of God." He had
already received a New Testament, but in it he did not
find "the psalms of David, nor the history of the Patriarchs
Jacob, Moses and David, who were all shepherds. All
this I wish to read, and to follow the example of those
great men. . . . When I read it in my solitude, I shall
find in it many things which will be profitable to me and
my children."

In 1820 Dr Steinkopff undertook his fourth continental
journey on behalf of the Society. He was absent from the
middle of May till the end of November, communicated
with many friends in France and Switzerland, visited forty
of the Bible Societies in Germany, and assisted at the
formation of nine new Auxiliaries. He was authorised to
make grants in money and in copies of the Scriptures to
the extent of ^2275. At Dresden he arranged that, in
addition to the donation of ,£300 in aid of the Wendish
Bible, the Committee should grant the Saxon Society a
loan of £200 (to be repaid in German Bibles from the

DISTRIBUTIONS IN BOHEMIA 429

stereotype plates), so that an ample supply might be sent
to the branch at Herrnhut, one of the most active of the
Saxon Auxiliaries. From the Herrnhut secretary he learned
that since the preceding autumn 4500 copies of Gosner's
New Testament and several hundreds of Van Ess's had
been dispersed among the Bohemian villages, where the
Scriptures were proscribed. "Obstacles had been thrown
in the way ; persecutions had been raised ; some of our
Bohemian fellow-Christians had even been imprisoned ; but
many waters had not been able to quench this flame."
Some enlightened priests had quietly, yet firmly, resolved
to provide their people with the Bread of Life. A
traveller, passing through one of the Bohemian villages,
was surprised to hear at the inn many voices raised in
singing the praise of God ; the innkeeper informed him
that the New Testament had lately reached them, and
since that time a flame of devotion had been kindled, and
little gatherings of pious Christians had been held. Five
years later, sitting on the Hutberg, among the hills around
Herrnhut, Dr Pinkerton looked down with joy on the
panoramic view of the Biblical field, in which so many
towns, hamlets and homesteads had been supplied with
the Scriptures. Beyond lay the forbidding aspect of the
Bohemian frontier, with the Giants' Mountains in the
background, and it gladdened him to think that in spite
of civil edict and ecclesiastical anathema, upwards of
30,000 copies of the sacred volumes had penetrated
through their rocky passes to the Roman Catholic popu-
lation, through the instrumentality of the society in that
place.

In Bavaria the prohibition had not yet been withdrawn,
but it was a centre from which many editions of the
New Testament had been issued. Dr Steinkopff ascertained
that over 350,000 copies of Van Ess's translation had gone
through the Seidel press at Sulzbach, nearly 80,000 of

430 THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA [1817

Gosner's had been printed at Munich, and more than 60,000
of Wittman's at Ratisbon.

The Hanover Society, under the patronage of H.R.H.
the Duke of Cambridge, had ten Auxiliaries and a number of
Associations, and during the five years of its activity had
issued 15,027 copies of the Scriptures.

The most remarkable feature of the Foreign Secretary's
tour, however, was the intense interest manifested by the
people in his pleading of the Bible cause. At Winterthur a
congregation of 3000 persons, including a dozen clergymen
and the magistrates of the town, assembled in the large
church on a week-day morning. A similar incident occurred
at Schaffhausen. At Ludwigsburg, his birthplace, he
addressed — again on a week-day — a gathering of 2000, and
had the satisfaction of attending the establishment of a new
Auxiliary. At Ulm, where the magistrates and clergy also
united in forming an Auxiliary, 4000 were present ; and there
were 4000 at Dresden. At Stuttgart he preached ten
sermons in ten days to congregations ranging from two to
four thousands, and "rejoiced to see the plates filled with
contributions of every value, from the dollar to the half
kreutzer."

The Wurtemberg Society was in good case. The year
before, the King, William I., had granted the use of a
building for a printing-office and warehouse — a gift which
had been supplemented by the Earl Street Committee with a
present of printing-presses and a vote of ,£200. More than
forty Auxiliaries and Associations (among the former that
for the University of Tubingen) co-operated with the central
administration at Stuttgart ; and in the capital, in addition
to the private support of all classes, twenty-two trade
guilds contributed to its funds. Since its establishment the
Wurtemberg Society had distributed 45,000 Bibles and
Testaments, and over 10,000 copies, issued from its presses,
had been circulated in adjoining territories.

i834l STEINKOPFF'S FIFTH TOUR 431

During his stay Dr Steinkopff had an audience of the
King, to whom he presented a copy of the Chinese Testament,
as a mark of the respect and gratitude of the British and
Foreign Bible Society. "Sir," said his Majesty, after speak-
ing in admiration of the Emperor Alexander's patronage of
the Bible cause in Russia, " if I can render you any service,
freely mention it ; I consider it a sacred duty to promote
the cause of the Bible Society, and when you return to
England, forget not your native land. My Wiirtembergers
are a good people." Dr Steinkopff had also the honour of
being received by the Queen and by the Queen-Dowager,
formerly Princess-Royal of Great Britain, who both gave
evidence of their warm interest in the movement.

Again, in 1823, he made another circuit among the
continental societies. He passed through Brussels, where a
British Bible Society was founded shortly afterwards ;
Cologne, whence 30,000 Bibles and Testaments had been
circulated among Protestants, Catholics, and Jews in the
course of seven years ; Elberfeld, where the Berg Society and
its five branches laboured in a fair region, overlooked by the
monument of ''the first messenger of the Gospel to these
parts, St Swibert, who came from England in 649, and
died in 711"; Frankfort, whence in little more than seven
years there had been dispersed 11,248 Bibles, and 35,041
Testaments — in all, 46,289 copies of the Scriptures; and so
south into Switzerland. At the close of 1822 the Basel
Society had printed or purchased 142,673 Bibles, Testaments,
and Psalters, of which 128,416 had been distributed, and, in
addition to these, there had been circulated among the
Roman Catholics 18,214 copies of the New Testament, pro-
vided by the parent institution.

At this date the Prussian Society's circulation amounted
to 42,246 Bibles and 27,252 Testaments, and its forty-
two Auxiliaries (leaving the minor Associations out of
account) had during the year disposed of 22,400. In eight

432 THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA [1817

years the Hamburg-Altona Society had distributed 23,864
copies.

In 1825 Dr Pinkerton visited the Bible establishments
in seven kingdoms. From Herrnhut, he reported, 47,000
copies had been scattered far and wide. At Wittenberg an
Auxiliary had been formed in 1823, and one of its most active
members was at the head of a religious seminary in the
very monastery in which " Luther lived the greater part of
his life, first as monk, and afterwards as Reformer." At the
sight of the historic cell, with its rude fir table and chair, he
was deeply impressed with the need of another Reformation,
" not from the errors of Popery, but from the mazes of an
all-overturning philosophy, before which nothing was sacred,
and according to which everything was doubtful." At
Erlangen he saw members of the recently-formed Auxiliary,
but not the leading spirit, " the famous philosopher Schelling,
who, after having travelled through the boundless and barren
wastes of speculative science, had now taken his stand on
revelation." At Frankfort he found that the total distribution
had risen to 61,329 copies, while that of the Wiirtemberg
Society, at home and abroad, stood at 135,786 copies.

These figures and notes of travel must suffice to indicate
the condition of the Continent, where the Bible Societies were
too numerous and their operations too complex to be dealt
with in detail. From 1821 to 1825 these societies presented
their fairest picture of prosperity. Their connection with the
great mother organisation was undisturbed in its affection
and admiration by any breath of controversy.

In Switzerland some trouble was caused by a departure
from the fundamental rule of the Society in connection with
Ostervald's admirable version of the Bible in French, of which
an edition of 10,000 copies was printed at Lausanne in 1822.
The work, which was under the superintendence of Professor
Levade and several pastors and professors, occupied four
years. When it appeared, it was found to contain some

1834] THE NETHERLANDS BIBLE SOCIETY 433

notes, which, though unobjectionable in themselves,
necessitated an immediate remonstrance from the London
Committee, who had contributed ^750 to the undertaking.
Explanations, accompanied by expressions of deep regret,
were made, and a strict admonition against the recurrence or
any such procedure closed the incident, which gave rise to
much angry criticism at home in the course of the Apocrypha
controversy. Nine years later, when this version was
revised for a new edition, Professor Levade wrote: " We
have rejected eveiy note whatsoever, as well as the books ot
the Apocrypha ; and we have, moreover, carefully weighed
all the critical observations with which we have been favoured
on the part of the Societies of Paris, London, Edinburgh,
etc." In 1833 Levade, who was then president of the
Canton de Vaud Bible Society, died at the age of eighty-
four.

In Germany, by the close of 1824, the editions of the
New Testament issued by Leander Van Ess reached a
total of 550,000 copies, and about the same time the
translation and printing of his Old Testament, to which,
however, no funds of the Bible Society were applied, were
completed.

In Hanover, in Saxony, and most signally in Prussia,
the work was prosecuted with energy, and in 1825 the
King of Prussia authorised an annual collection for the
promotion of the Bible cause to be made in all the Protestant
churches of the kingdom.

The Netherlands Bible Society, founded in 1814, had
not only grouped round itself some sixty Auxiliaries and
Associations, but had become actively engaged in provid-
ing for the spiritual welfare of the Dutch settlements at
Amboyna, Sumatra, and other remote localities. Assist-
ance had been sent to the societies in the East, and a
Malay Bible in Arabic characters had been printed at
Amsterdam.

VOL. I. 2 E

434 THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA [1817-

UI cannot sufficiently bless God," wrote Dr Pinkerton
in the course of the tour to which reference has just
been made, "for the innumerable proofs which I have
had that everywhere the work of Bible distribution is
proceeding with more or less vigour, and that every-
where it is acknowledged to be a powerful instrument
in the hand of God, in these awful times, for preserving
alive among the people the faith and practice of genuine
Christianity."

At the close of 1825-6 the twelve Swiss societies, so
far as their reports had reached Earl Street, had issued
253>6;6 Bibles and Testaments. The societies of Central
Europe had circulated 859,688. Among these, thirty in
number, with a host of Auxiliaries and Branch Associations,
the following may be particularised : —

Issues of Scriptures
Founded up to 1826.

1814 The Prussian (1805, the Berlin) Bible Society —

Bibles and Testaments 88,247

43 Auxiliaries 200,000

1812 The Wiirtemberg Bible Society, with 46 Branches !35594i

1814 The Saxon Bible Society, with 5 Auxiliaries . . 104,505
1814 The Hanover Bible Society, with 23 Auxiliaries

and Associations jS?000

1814 The Netherlands Bible Society, with 60 Auxiliaries

(Dutch) " 19,100

(Malay, in Arabic type) .... 13,000

(Malay, in Roman type) .... 10,000

1816 The Frankfort Bible Society .... 69,699

Strangely enough, the year 1826, which was marked
by the suspension of the Russia Bible Society, witnessed
a distressing change in the relations between the British
and Foreign Bible Society and its continental allies.
As the result of the Apocrypha controversy and the
new laws formed for its settlement, an official circular
was despatched to all the foreign Bible Societies, in
February 1826, intimating that, while nothing was further

i«34] THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 435

from the intentions of the Society than to interfere with
the religious views and opinions, the rites and usages
of foreign Churches, the funds intrusted to the Society
could be applied solely to the printing and circulation
of the canonical books, and that the Apocrypha must
find no place in any volume printed at the expense or
with the aid of the Society. Five-and-twenty societies
replied in the course of a few months. While gratefully
acknowledging the liberal assistance they had received up
to that time, earnestly pointing out the dangers of giving
effect to the decision, and praying for reconsideration, the
most influential — the Prussian, Hanoverian, Saxon, Danish
and Swedish, and those at Frankfort, Basel, Berne, Zurich,
Lausanne, Geneva and Paris — declared that they must
continue to disseminate the Sacred Scriptures in the form
in which they had been handed down to the people and
authorised by the Church. At the same time, in many
instances the societies, though unable themselves to
surrender the Apocrypha, were not unwilling to accept
and distribute Bibles purely canonical, or at least the
New Testament, on the conditions laid down by the Society.
As, however, some misapprehension seemed to exist regard-
ing the views and intentions of the British Society, a
second circular, signed by Lord Teignmouth, was issued
early in 1827. It embodied a copy of the resolutions
passed on the 3rd May 1826, and proceeded to state the
extent of the assistance which the Society was still able to
afford to its foreign associates : —

" By the preceding resolutions it will appear that the Committee cannot
make any grants of money to such societies as apply their funds to the
circulation of the Apocrypha together with the canonical writings ; because
these resolutions require that the funds of the British and Foreign Bible
Society shall be appropriated exclusively to the dissemination of the
canonical books of Scripture. But still, even under these resolutions, the
Committee are competent to afford very considerable assistance to their
continental coadjutors, viz. : —

436 THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA [1817-

" ist. To all societies whose rules and practice accord with those of
the British and Foreign Bible Society in a total exclusion of the Apocrypha,
they can grant assistance in money and books as formerly.

"2nd. To societies which circulate the Apocrypha with the Canon
of Scripture, whether intermixed or separate, they can afford supplies of the
Holy Scriptures, in whole or in part, for sale or gratuitous distribution, as
follows : —

"(a) Grants of bound Bibles in different authorised versions in usage
on the Continent, containing the canonical books only ;

" (b) Grants of bound New Testaments of the same versions :

" (c) Grants of the New Testament and the Book of Psalms, bound in
one volume ; and

"(d) Grants of one or more books of the sacred Canon bound up
together.

" It is to be observed that, in all the foregoing cases of grants, the books
will be delivered bound.

"All such grants of the Holy Scriptures are placed by the Committee at
the full disposal of the Foreign Societies for sale at cost and at reduced
prices, or for gratuitous distribution among such as are unable to pay any
part of the price of them. The only conditions which the Committee of the
British and Foreign Bible Society require to be complied with, on the
part of the Foreign Societies receiving such grants, are : —

" (a) That the books be circulated in the state in which they are received,
without alteration or addition ;

" (b) That a distinct account of the copies sold and distributed gratuit-
ously be kept, and a copy of it forwarded to the Committee of the British
and Foreign Bible Society ; and

" (c) That the proceeds, or moneys received for the copies sold, be
transmitted to the Treasurer of the British and Foreign Bible Society."

With a view to removing every ground of misconception,
and ascertaining the possibilities of individual agency
where the new regulations were not accepted, Dr Pinkerton
and the Rev. Richard Waldo Sibthorp visited the Continent
in the summer of 1827 on behalf of the Committee. " We
found the door closed — and, I may say, in most cases
barred — against the operations of our Society," wrote
Mr Sibthorp ; l but principles were explained, misunder-
standings cleared up, fears allayed, and some ill-will was

1 In recognition of the Society's indebtedness to Mr Sibthorp, who defrayed
his own expenses during the tour, his name was enrolled on the list of Honorary
Life Governors.

i«34] HOPES OF REUNION 437

checked. The Prussian Society empowered certain of its
members to receive and distribute grants on the Committee's
conditions ; the Saxon and Wtirtemberg Societies declined
to receive Bibles without the Apocrypha ; but at Leipzig
and Nuremberg, Schaffhausen, St Gall, Aarau, and, after
long deliberation, at Basel, it was agreed to circulate them
on the terms specified. Several offers of personal agency
were accepted, and while the deputation thought there
might be an advantageous development in that direction,
they strongly urged the establishment of a central agency,
by means of which energy might be diffused, effort
concentrated, expense saved, and supervision exercised
over the printing of the Scriptures and the action of
subordinate agents.

The free city of Frankfort-on-the-Main, with its facilities
of communication, its extensive commercial intercourse, and
its liberal government, commended itself as the most suitable
centre ; and accordingly Mr Claus, the old and tested
correspondent of the Society, was engaged to devote himself
to its service.

Various intimations were received which strengthened
the hope that the foreign societies might gradually take
the British view of the Apocrypha. Both from Frankfort
and Herrnhut they heard that the exclusion of the un-
canonical books was not resented by the people. "Several
have said to me," wrote Bishop Fabricius, "'We only
seek after the Word of God, in order to gather edification
therefrom; that we possess here entire in one volume."
"The dispute respecting the Apocrypha," wrote the
secretary of the Ltibeck Society, "although it may prove
highly unpleasant to many for the time being, will be, in
my opinion, beneficial to the Protestant Church on the
Continent." The most significant note, however, sounded
from Basel. "Your visit," Dr Blumhardt wrote, "has
been the means of causing the people on the Continent to

438 THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA U«i7-

take a clearer view of the Apocrypha question, to examine
into the real value of those books, and to separate them
more distinctly than hitherto from the collection of the
inspired Scriptures. It is true, all the public papers and
literary journals speak more loudly than ever in favour of
the Apocrypha being retained. The Socinian party, which
continues still to be very strong, is particularly interested
therein, in seeking by these means to envelop in obscurity
and to lower the idea attached to inspiration ; whilst the
Evangelical party, which is on the increase, dare not, on
account of the consequences, suffer the Apocrypha to be
given up in the Church. However, amidst this mental
commotion, the cause itself can only be benefited, and
the Lord will take care for it that it be made instru-
mental in promoting the true interests of the kingdom of
God." But time, as it went by, made it unmistakably
clear that most of the continental societies, and among
them the most influential, were settled in their adher-
ence to the Apocrypha. Money grants to these had
ceased ; even the grants of Scriptures were much reduced ;
and if the British and Foreign Bible Society was to carry
forward to any large and permanent extent a circulation
of the canonical books only, it must be by means of direct
agency.

The resignation of Dr Van Ess, about the end of 1829,
decided the Committee to take the important step of
appointing Dr Pinkerton to the complete control of the
Frankfort Agency, with Mr Claus associated as coadjutor.

Notwithstanding the shadows which fell upon his
closing years, the career of Leander Van Ess was too
remarkable to be passed over without further notice. The
first edition of his version of the New Testament appeared
in 1807. In 1821 Dr Pinkerton sent home a statement
showing the wide area over which the book had spread.
It affords a striking illustration of the good work which

LEANDER VAN ESS

439

may be accomplished through the instrumentality of one
man. There had up to that date been circulated —

In the Kingdom of Wiirtemberg, upwards of . 38,000 copies

In the States of Baden 20,000 „

In Switzerland ....... 10,000 ,,

In the Austrian dominions ..... 24,500 „

In Bavaria, about . . . . . . . 3,000 ,,

In Nassau 10,000 „

In the States of Darmstadt, upwards of . . 10,000 ,,

In and around Elberfeld ..... 3,000 „

In the country about Miinster .... 2,000 „

In and near Osnabruck ...... 6,000 „

In the Principality of Wildenheim . . . 10,000 „

In the Prussian States, about Berlin, Stettin, etc. . 10,000 „

In Silesia, upwards of 30,000 „

In and around Frankfort-on-the-Main . . . 10,000 „

In the country around Fulda 5,000 „

In addition, there had been circulated in smaller
numbers in every part of Germany and other
countries of Europe where German Roman

Catholics were found ..... 239,663 „

Total issues . . . 431,163 copies

At the time of the Apocrypha controversy, the agency
of Leander Van Ess — for his services had become so
valuable to the cause that he had been prevailed on to
give up his professorship and devote himself wholly to
the Society — was made the subject of severe animadversion.
In his Quarterly Re-view article, Southey jeered at SteinkopfFs
remark that Dr Van Ess ''sought no earthly emolu-
ments"— desired neither the applause of a vain world, nor
the treasures which rust and moth consume. "Coupling
the profits derived from this source [the sale of his New
Testament] with the annual salary of ^360, and taking
into consideration, at the same time, that a pound sterling
in Catholic Germany is, in exchange for commodities,
equal to double that amount in this country, we arrive
at the conclusion," wrote Southey, "that the Doctor's

440 THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA

feelings in regard to ' earthly emoluments ' have been
cruelly outraged by the Directors." Smartly put, but
recklessly untrue. Mr Sibthorp brought home evidence
that four years before Van Ess became acquainted with
the Society, and ten before he was engaged as its salaried
agent, the copyright of his New Testament version had
been disposed of to the printer Von Seidel on terms which
enabled the Doctor and his brother to realise between them,
in money and books, for the nineteen years the agreement
had lasted, "rather more than £32 per annum."

Called upon in 1826 to give his opinion of the expediency
of retaining the services of Van Ess, the Foreign Secretary
stated that up to that time the Doctor had brought into
circulation 583,000 copies of his own version, "besides
11,984 Bibles and several thousand New Testaments of
Luther's, and a considerable number of the Scriptures in
ancient and modern Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac,
and in other European and Oriental languages, the latter
chiefly among Roman Catholic students of divinity " ;
that, notwithstanding the late restrictions, Van Ess
had still many and most favourable opportunities of dis-
tributing the Scriptures in various tongues ; and that
"many might, perhaps, be found willing to offer their
services, but he said not too much if he asserted, ' There
is but one Leander Van Ess." In spite of strong
opposition, the Committee declined to part with a servant
whose character stood so high, and whose labours had
for so many years spread the Word of Life through the
kingdoms of Europe.

The end came unexpectedly. In the report for 1830
it was announced with "particular regret" that circum-
stances had arisen which had led to the termination of
the agency. All receipts and disbursements had been
accounted for, and the affairs of the agency had been
satisfactorily wound up. The cause of this painful incident,

i834] THE FRANKFORT AGENCY 441

writes the Rev. George Browne,1 "was entirely personal,
and remains in some obscurity ; for Leander Van Ess,
while protesting his innocence in regard to certain imputa-
tions affecting his moral character, alleged that his oath
as a Catholic priest precluded his making such explanations
as might have cleared up the suspicions arising from his
ambiguous domestic relationships." He was now an old
man ; for some years his health had been failing. In the
autumn of 1827 Pinkerton and Sibthorp had found him
in so grave a condition that his recovery seemed doubtful.
"His memory is much impaired; and there is altogether
a degree of mental weakness manifest, which it was indeed
affecting to observe." Although his connection with the
Society was necessarily closed, friends did not fail him in
his dark hour. A private subscription was raised among
the members, who had not forgotten his great and valuable
services through many years, and a small annuity was
secured as his chief support for the remainder of his life.

In October 1830, Dr Pinkerton entered upon his new
duties at Frankfort, and at once set himself to the enormous
task of consolidating the new system, on which henceforth
the operations of the Bible Society were to be conducted
on the Continent. The effects of the use of agencies
had in a measure been demonstrated at home. Agencies
had been established in Paris and in the Mediterranean ;
an agency was gradually shaping itself at St Petersburg.
At Frankfort the capabilities of the system were to be
tested on a large scale.

In the first three years he distributed from the Frankfort
Agency and the depots in Munich, Leipzig, and Halle
154,898 copies of the Scriptures in German, Polish, French,
Italian, Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Of this large aggregate,
which exceeded the returns of the national societies of
Prussia, Saxony, or Wiirtemberg, and which was dispersed

1 Bro\vne, History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, vol. i. p. 361.

442 THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA [1817-

th rough Prussia and Poland, Hungary, Austria, and
Bohemia, Switzerland on the south and Alsace on the
west, no fewer than 74,796 copies were circulated among
Roman Catholics.

Much time was necessarily taken up in the supervision
of printing and binding (in regard to which, while securing
better material, Dr Pinkerton effected considerable economies),
and in correspondence with individuals and the continental
societies, in whose exertions the Committee took unabated
interest ; but in addition to these duties, he managed in
the three years to make four extensive tours, the accounts
of which contained frequent evidence of the salutary
influence of the Scriptures distributed. At Stuttgart he
met Dr Blumhardt of Basel, and made arrangements with
him respecting the versions which the missionaries of the
Basel Missionary Society were preparing at Shusha, and the
supplies of Scriptures which it was desirable to send them.
At Halle Professor Tholuck drew his attention to the " re-
markable fact that formerly it was an unusual thing for
the students of theology to have in their possession, much
more to peruse, the German Scriptures for their edification ;
now nearly all the young men studying under him for the
sacred ministry had supplied themselves with German
Bibles for the above purpose." In the same year (1833)
he took farewell of the good Bishop Fabricius, of the
Church of the United Brethren at Herrnhut, whom he
had persuaded nineteen years before to take part in the
Society's labours, and who had distributed in Lusatia and
Bohemia 58,926 Bibles and Testaments in German and
Bohemian solely at the expense of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, and upwards of 5000 on account
of the Herrnhut Auxiliary. The Bishop had retired from
his public duties a year before, but now the infirmities
of age compelled him to resign his Bible work too. He
was grateful to God for the privilege of co-operating for

i §34]

THE EFFECT OF THE SECESSION

443

so long a period, and expressed his conviction that "this
precious seed of divine truth would produce good fruit in
the ages to come."

Notwithstanding the independent condition in which
the greater number of the continental societies now stood,
a friendly intercourse was still in a considerable measure
kept up ; many obtained supplies of the Scriptures from
the Frankfort Agency, and the Committee at home were
always glad to hear of their prosperity, for many of them
were the children of the British Society's inspiration and
fostering, and all were labouring in the same sacred cause.

During the eight years which had elapsed since the
Apocrypha secession, the societies of Central Europe
distributed 1,986,009 copies of the Scriptures. Of these
Switzerland circulated 399,840; Germany, 1,420,695.

The radical and pervasive effect of the change which
had taken place is, however, most significantly displayed
in the following analysis of the grants made during this
period by the British and Foreign Bible Society : —

GRANTS TO CENTRAL EUROPE

1818-1834 . . ,£112,780

TOTAL FROM 1818 TO 1826
,£69,840

TOTAL FROM 1827 TO 1834
£42,940

To Societies . . -£51,918

To Dr Van Ess —

Roman Catholics £10,383
General . . 3,514

13,897

Miscellaneous grants
through various corre-
spondents and friends 4,025

To Societies . . .,£1 2,026

To Dr Van Ess-
Roman Catholics £1,020
General . . 392

TOTAL . £69,840

To Frankfort Agency
Miscellaneous grants,
chiefly to correspond-
ents in place of the
old Auxiliaries

TOTAL

1,412
12,923

16,579
£42,940

444 THE CONTINENT AND THE APOCRYPHA [1817-34

By including the grants distributed through various
channels in Poland, and those placed at the disposal of
Dr Steinkopff, during his tour of 1820, we have a gross
total of ,£116,327.

Few of the societies received grants up to 1830, and
none after 1832. The grants on behalf of Roman
Catholics, so far as they are distinguishable, amounted
to ^23,994 in 1818-26, and to ,£3,480 in 1827-34 — a
total of ,£27,474 ; but, from the figures quoted a few
pages back in regard to Dr Pinkerton's operations at
Frankfort, it is obvious that the sum specifically voted
in the latter part of this period by no means represents
the actual circulation of the Scriptures among Roman
Catholics.

CHAPTER XXIII

NORTHERN EUROPE AND THE APOCRYPHA

WE now turn to the societies of Northern Europe, a survey
of which is necessary to complete the record of the opera-
tions and condition of the Continent.

Established at Copenhagen in 1814, the Danish Bible
Society speedily obtained a position of distinction.
Frederick VI. favoured it with his special interest ; under the
auspices of his Highness Prince Christian a flourishing
Auxiliary was founded in the island of Fiinen ; persons of
the highest rank and influence in Church and State promoted
the circulation of the Bible ; and the rapid growth and ex-
cellent organisation of the dependent Associations were in
no small measure due to Dr Henderson, who, during his
residence in Denmark, made frequent tours in furtherance
of the cause. Year after year the rate of its circulation
increased ; numerous accessions strengthened the array
of its Auxiliaries ; and clear testimony was borne both to
the previous dearth of the Scriptures and to the beneficial
results of their distribution.

In 1818 a new edition of the Creole Testament was issued
at Copenhagen for the use of the negroes in the Danish
West Indies, where a Bible Society had been formed at
St Croix (Santa Cruz) ; and the society accepted from the
Rev. Mr Schroter, rector of one of the churches in the
Faroes, a version of the Gospel of St Matthew in the old
Norse dialect of the islanders, wherein no book had ever

445

446 NORTHERN EUROPE AND APOCRYPHA [1817-

yet been printed. The work was much needed, for Danish
was all but unintelligible to them ; and through that cluster
of eider - haunted bergs the stormy seas raced with such
violence as to render it impossible for many of the
people to attend divine service half a dozen times a year.
The sheets were seen through the press by a learned
pastor in Jutland, the Rev. Mr Lyngbye, who, during
his botanical excursions in the islands, had acquired a
familiar knowledge of the language ; and at last, in 1823,
an edition of 1500 copies, with the Danish in parallel
columns, was ready for distribution.

Iceland was not forgotten when the spring ships
sailed, and an annual supply of Testaments was
despatched to Greenland. Under the influence of the
Gospel, the Eskimos had shown themselves "a simple-
hearted and docile race," and as they had no knowledge
of the Old Testament save such as might be gleaned
from a history of the Bible by Fabricius, who had
laboured like an apostle among them, the Danish
committee resolved to prepare and print a version of
the most important books. In 1821, although he was
in his seventy-eighth year, the venerable Bishop Fabricius,
superintendent of the Greenland Mission, cheerfully
undertook the difficult task of translating Genesis, the
Psalms and Isaiah. In a few months his earthly toils
were brought to a close, and the work was taken up by
the Rev. Mr Wolff, chaplain to the citadel of Copenhagen,
who had himself been a missionary among the Eskimo, and
who had acquired a knowledge of their speech scarcely
inferior to that of the Bishop himself. In 1826 the whole
of the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and Isaiah had been
printed, and copies had been sent to Greenland. Wolff,
too, passed to his rest, and the other portions of the Old
Testament were intrusted to Pastor Kragh, who had
married a Greenlander, and who, during a ten years'

THE DANISH BIBLE SOCIETIES 447

residence, had won for himself the repute of a second
Fabricius.

From Iceland Dean Helgasen, the secretary to the
Icelandic Society, reported in 1821 that every family
throughout the island was now in possession of a Bible
or a New Testament, and many of more than one copy.
"The sacred volume is read with diligence during the
long winter evenings."

In the German part of the Danish dominions, the
Sleswick-Holstein Society, under the presidency of his
Serene Highness the Landgrave Charles of Hesse, enjoyed
the same royal favour as the sister society at Copenhagen.
In 1818 the London Committee had presented it with a
set of stereo plates of Luther's Bible, and an edition of
10,000 copies was struck off at the Deaf and Dumb
Asylum, the boys of which, Dr Henderson noted, were
rejoiced to think that they, in their silent and soundless
world, should become in a sense preachers, sending
forth the Word of God in its power. The inception of
this edition was made a memorable episode in the history
of the Auxiliary. " The printing began on the 8th
December, in the presence of the Directors of the Deaf and
Dumb Institution and all the members of the committee of
the Sleswick-Holstein Bible Society. The Chancellor of the
Supreme Court first struck off a proof sheet, then the General-
Superintendent, and afterwards every one present in rotation.
With prayer to God," wrote Dean Callisen, "that He
would grant success to this new institution in furtherance
of the cause of His holy Word, I lifted up my eyes to
Heaven, imploring at the same time a blessing on all
those worthy men to whose ardent zeal and benevolence
we are indebted for this great gift." In 1821 the society
was supported by 120 Auxiliaries and Associations.

Throughout the existence of the societies up to this
date there had been circulated in the dominions of

448 NORTHERN EUROPE AND APOCRYPHA [1817

Denmark over 80,000 Bibles and Testaments — 44,160 by
the Danish Society, 24,000 by that of Sleswick-Holstein,
10,000 in Iceland, and 2000 in the principality of Lauenberg.
In 1825 the circulation had increased to 120,000, and Bishop
Miinter wrote: "The work is still prospering, amidst the
calamities of the present times. ... In the progress of my
last Biblical tour, it was delightful to me to observe the
beneficial effects which the dissemination of the Holy
Scriptures has produced in our native land, with respect
to the sentiments and morals of the people."

In Sweden Charles XIII. died in February 1818, but
in his successor, Charles XIV. (the high-minded Bernadotte),
the Swedish Society had a gracious sovereign, who in
the past had been its "first member and patron," and
who was still devoted to its interests. The bishops and
clergy zealously promoted the great enterprise, and evidence
of their influence was seen in the array of auxiliaries which
sprang up at Lund, Gothenburg, Skara ; at Upsala and
Wexio ; at Westerns, Carlstadt, and Hernosand ; at Wisby
in Gothland, Nerike, and Linkoping. A Marine Bible
Society was formed at Skipsholm, and in 1819 Dr
Henderson was instrumental in establishing a naval
organisation under the patronage of the commandants at
Carlscrona, "the Portsmouth of Sweden," which harboured
nearly twenty sail of the line, and contained, besides the
ordinary civil population, between seven and eight thousand
people employed by the Admiralty. In that year Strangnas
was the solitary diocese in Sweden in which there was
no Bible Society. The Bishop, Tingstadius, was one of
the first Hebrew scholars of the age. He had been
employed in preparing a new translation of the Swedish
Bible, but it was in vain that both Dr Paterson and Dr
Henderson endeavoured to persuade him of the general
utility of Bible Societies. With a singular short-sighted-
ness, he opposed the circulation of the old Swedish version

i*34l THE SWEDISH BIBLE SOCIETY 449

as certain to prejudice the success of his own under-
taking. Thirteen years later, under his successor, Bishop
Thyselius, a society was founded at Strangnas, and
the Word of God had a free course through the whole
kingdom.

In Stockholm the first Swedish Ladies Society was
founded, and in 1820 Dr Paterson explained to its members
the system on which these Associations in England enabled
the poor to provide themselves with the Scriptures. In
a little while the beautiful practice was adopted by many
Auxiliaries of presenting Bibles to children at baptism,
and to virtuous couples in the course of the bridal
ceremony.

In 1821 the Swedish Society had distributed nearly
170,000 Bibles and Testaments ; but it was still a long
way from the accomplishment of its ultimate design —
"that the meanest cottage of the kingdom should not
be destitute of the Word of God." In the diocese of
Linkoping, with a population of 250,000 and upwards, a
special investigation in every parish had revealed that
only one person in eight was in possession of a Bible
or Testament ; and another Auxiliary discovered, on a
fresh survey, 13,900 families, of whom 4385 were unable
to pay the full price for either, and 4403 unable to pay
at all. This state of matters was all the more to be
regretted when it was remembered that there were very
few grown-up persons in the country unable to read.
The number of schools for the poor was limited, indeed ;
but the child learned to read at its mother's knee, and
itinerant teachers travelled from hamlet to hamlet, keeping
school for three or four months according to the encourage-
ment they received. To meet the exigencies of the case,
the Swedish Society received a grant of ^500, of which
^"300 in Bibles and Testaments was to be equally divided
between the Auxiliaries at Carlstadt and Gothenburg and
VOL. i. 2 F

450 NORTHERN EUROPE AND APOCRYPHA [1817-

the Ladies' Society at Stockholm ; and a similar grant
was voted in the two following years.

The effect of these exertions was patent to the observer.
"Before the establishment of a Bible Society in 1808
in Sweden," said a faithful pastor of Gothland, " pure
Christian principles seemed to be dormant, and indifference
and infidelity gained ground every day. A happy change
has begun, yea, more than begun ; and we anticipate,
in faith and patience, a glorious and universal triumph."
And the Prime Minister, Baron Rosenblad, president of
the Swedish Society, expressed himself still more strongly
in a letter to the London Committee in December 1822 :
" I perceive the present to be a serious crisis for better
or worse, which will perhaps determine the moral state of
mankind for centuries. God is abundantly sowing His
good seed, but the enemy is no less actively sowing his
tares. Had not Bible Societies, through the merciful
providence of God, been established to counteract the
evils of infidelity and ignorance of spiritual things, in
what a state of moral degradation would the world have
been at this moment ! "

In 1825 the total issues of the Swedish Society amounted
to 204,645 copies.

Beyond the fact that an Auxiliary had been formed at
Stavanger, little was heard of the Norwegian Society for
a year or two after its foundation. Indeed, it was not
till 1820 that it was re-organised on the strict lines of the
British and Foreign Bible Society, and received the grant
°f jC5°° which had been promised at the close of the first
period. That there was a great dearth of the Scriptures
in Norway, and a great eagerness on the part of the
people to become possessed of them, is attractively demon-
strated in a letter from a friend who was travelling in the
north in 1818 : "The pilot, who came on board to conduct
the vessel to Stavanger, having learnt by some means or

THE NORWEGIAN BIBLE SOCIETY 451

other that we had some Bibles with us, earnestly entreated
that he might be permitted to buy one. He lives on one
of the little islands with which this harbour [Christiania]
abounds, and stated that a single copy, which they had
among them, had almost excited a quarrel, so many
wished to possess it. They were at last obliged to decide
the matter by drawing lots, and much did he regret that
the lot did not fall upon him. We gave the old man a
copy, which he received with marks of the deepest
gratitude."

In 1819, in the course of his circuitous marriage-tour
to which we have referred, Dr Henderson was setting out
on a two-months' journey through the mountainous regions
of Norway, when he was thrown from his carriage a few
miles beyond Gothenburg.

Norway may be said to have been first brought into
touch with Earl Street by the Rev. Peter Treschow, a
Norwegian pastor in London, who visited it in 1821 on
behalf of the parent Society. He had the honour of being
presented to Charles XIV., who closed an interesting
conversation with words very similar to those of his
Majesty of Wiirtemberg : "You see, therefore, sir, that
as a Christian and a King, I feel myself bound in duty
to support the circulation of the Bible." He was able
to report favourably of the prospects of the society in
Christiania and the surrounding country. The London
Committee were not slow to avail themselves of every
possibility of co-operation. They encouraged the Norwegian
Society to undertake a fresh edition of 10,000 copies of
the New Testament — they had just issued one of 6000 —
by offering to bear half the expense. About this time,
too, an opening presented itself further north. At the
instance of two gentlemen of Trondhjem, 1500 Danish
Testaments were forwarded to the busy city of St Olaf,
and the Committee decided themselves to print 5000

452 NORTHERN EUROPE AND APOCRYPHA [1817

copies of the Norwegian version for the benefit of its
people.

The most notable result of Mr Treschow's work,
however, was the tidings he sent of a Christian tribe —
the Kwains — inhabiting, under the seventy-first degree of
latitude, the bleak region between the Alten and Varanger
Fjords, where the sun never rises during two months of
the year. "They are not wanderers, like the Swedish
Finns," he wrote, "but support themselves by fishing or
agriculture. The majority can read, but so great is the
scarcity of religious books, and the eagerness of profiting
by them, that they do not think it too hard to walk
twenty or thirty miles to gratify their taste for hearing a
good book read, or to sing religious hymns." Copies of

O

the Finnish Bible, printed at Abo, had been sent to them,
but had been found unintelligible on account of the
difference of their dialect. The Committee at once took
up their case, and offered a grant of ,£200 ; the archives
at Copenhagen were searched, but no Kwain MSS.
were discovered, and the few ministers who knew the
language were too aged or too much occupied with other
duties to take up a translation of the New Testament.
At length a zealous worker was found. The Rev. Mr
Stockfleth, who had been an officer in the army, resigned
a more profitable charge, and took up his residence among
the Kwains, that he might devote himself to the task.
In 1828 Dr Pinkerton arranged that the Committee should
bear the cost of producing and binding a first edition ;
but it was not before 1840 that the version was finished
and printed, with the Danish text in parallel columns,
under the supervision of the Norwegian Bible Society.

The Norwegian Society gradually shaped a number of
Branches and Associations. In 1824 the secretary of the
Auxiliary at Bergen wrote: "Even here, among the
Norwegian rocks, the long slumbering desire after the

1834] ADHERENCE TO CUSTOM 453

divine Word has at length been awakened in the souls
of our fellow-Christians " ; and in the following year the
committee at Christiania were "happy to communicate
the joyful intelligence that the Bible cause acquires more
and more friends in our country also."

In 1826 Scandinavia, like the rest of the Continent,
experienced the disorganising effects of the Apocrypha
controversy. In Sweden the attempt of the Evangelical
Society of Stockholm to circulate the Bible without the
uncanonical books had already aroused the strong dis-
approval of the public ; and on behalf of the Swedish
Bible Society, the president, Baron Rosenblad, now wrote
to say that it was impossible for them to depart from the
tradition establish d during three centuries in the Church
of Sweden. In following their conscientious convictions,
however, they would ever cherish towards the British and
Foreign Bible Society the deepest respect, gratitude, and
affection. In Denmark and Norway the suppression of the
Apocrypha was regarded from the same standpoint of
ancient ecclesiastical custom. The conciliatory results of
the tour of Messrs Sibthorp and Pinkerton in Germany
and Switzerland suggested the wisdom of adopting a
similar course in regard to the north, and in 1828 Dr
Pinkerton spent the summer months in Sweden and
Denmark.

At Copenhagen he found Bishop Miinter strongly
opposed to any attempt to introduce Bibles without the
Apocrypha. After long discussion, the directors of the
Danish Society accepted the offer of 200 Hebrew Bibles
and 150 Greek Testaments for the benefit of students;
they were willing to distribute the Danish New Testament,
if printed at the Royal Orphan House at Copenhagen ;
and, if the British and Foreign Bible Society gave an
order for a purely canonical edition of the Danish Bible,

454 NORTHERN EUROPE AND APOCRYPHA [1817-

also to be printed at the Orphan House, they would
ascertain from the Royal Chancery whether they would
be allowed to undertake its distribution. The Sleswick-
Holstein Society was better disposed to enter into co-
operation on the new basis, and it was assigned 500
Bibles and 1000 Testaments, to be accounted for according
to the regulations. At this time the issues of the societies
in Denmark amounted to 142,310 copies of the Scriptures,
of which 71,500, in Danish, had been printed at the
Orphan House, and 62,500, in German, had been produced
by the Deaf and Dumb Institution at Sleswick. As time
went by, however, these societies appeared to prefer an
independent course of action, and correspondence with
Denmark was chiefly maintained through a few private
friends, among them the Rev. Mr Rontgen of Christianfeld,
and Mr Reiche of Sleswick, who for several years carried
on an agency under the direction ot the London
Committee.

In Sweden Dr Pinkerton was received with extreme
cordiality. At Gothenburg Bishop Wingard expressed
much apprehension of public dissatisfaction if a second
attempt were made to suppress the Apocrypha, but the
society was nevertheless persuaded to make a trial with
250 Bibles and 800 New Testaments. It had already
distributed nearly 51,600 copies in the diocese, which
contained a population of 300,000, and as this was about
one-sixth of the aggregate issues of all the Swedish
societies, much still remained to be done throughout the
kingdom.

Whole-hearted co-operation awaited him at Upsala, the
sacred capital of the old days, when the kings of Sweden,
Christian and pagan, used to stand on "the King's Stone,"
to receive homage within sight of the hill on which the
first temple to Odin was built. Archbishop Rosenstein,
the Primate of Sweden, assured him that he had "never

THE CODEX ARGENTEUS 455

considered the apocryphal books as forming any part of
his Bible," and readily engaged, on behalf of the Upsala
Society, to distribute 300 Bibles and 500 Testaments. To
this grant were added, for poor students, 50 Hebrew Bibles
and as many Greek Testaments. In the Royal Library
Dr Pinkerton turned over the aged leaves of the famous
Codex Argenteus, containing nearly all that survives of the
Gothic version of the Bible by Bishop Ulfilas — the earliest
writing we possess in the tongue of our ancestors. A
purple parchment MS. of the fifth century, inscribed in
letters of silver and bound in solid silver, it was discovered
in the eleventh century in the Abbey of Werden, in
Westphalia ; it was afterwards transferred to Prague, and
when that city was taken in 1648 by Count Konigsmark,
he carried the precious relic with him to Upsala.1 " I
felt again," wrote Dr Pinkerton, "as I once did at Rome,
while standing beneath the Arch of Titus, and beholding
sculptured on its walls the Ark of the Covenant, the golden
candlestick, and other sacred things taken from the sanctuary
— in both instances valuable testimony confirmatory of our
holy faith."

The Swedish Society adhered to its resolution to apply

1 Miiller : Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. i. p. 214. More fragments of
the Gothic version were found in 1818 in the monastery of Bobbio, " where they had
probably been preserved ever since the Gothic empire of Theodoric the Great in
Italy had been destroyed." Even after nineteen hundred years, the speech of the
warlike Goths, whom the good Bishop dared not trust with a translation of the
heroic "gestes" of the Books of Kings, does not sound wholly unfamiliar to our ears
in the following passage : —

Yah hwazuh-saei hauseith waurda meina, yah ni taugith tho, galikoda
Yea whoso he heareth words mine, yea nor doeth them, I liken to

mann dwallamma saei getimbridad razn sein ana mcelmin.

man dull (foolish) who timbered (built) erection (house) his on sands.

Yah at-iddya dalath rign, yah cwemun aquos, yah waiwoun

Yea to-hied (rushed) down rain, yea came waters, yea waved (blew)

windos, yah bistigwun bi janamma razna, yah gadraus, yah was draus is
winds, yea begushed on that house, yea thrust, yea was thrust that

mikils.
mickle (great).

— Benham, Dictionary of Religion, p. 1060. Compare mcelmin with North Meols,
the North Sands, on the Lancashire coast.

456 NORTHERN EUROPE AND APOCRYPHA [1817-

its funds to the version containing the Apocrypha, but
consented to distribute the canonical Scriptures to those
who desired to purchase them. A grant was accordingly
made of 500 Bibles and 1000 Testaments in Swedish, 100
Hebrew Bibles, 100 Greek Testaments, and some copies
in English. At Wexio the committee of the society agreed,
subject to the approval of the Bishop, to accept a small
consignment. A few days later Dr Pinkerton met the
Bishop, who not only sanctioned the proceeding, but
doubled the number of Bibles, and promised that the new
regulations should be complied with. This friendly prelate
was no other than Esaias Tegner, "the glory and boast
of Sweden, the first among all her poets, living or dead,"
whose Children of the Lords Supper has long been familiar
in the beautiful translation by Longfellow. "It was to
this country about Wexio," wrote Dr Pinkerton, "that
missionaries were sent from England about 800 years ago"
— Sigfried, Archdeacon of York, and his three nephews,
according to the hagiographer. Admonished by an angel
in a vision of the night, Sigfried built the Cathedral of
Wexio, and was buried within its walls when his labours
were done; "and it is a pleasing reflection that, after the
lapse of so many centuries, highly-favoured England is
still enabled to send the sacred volume to the Christian
inhabitants of the same place." At Carlscrona, Lund, and
Christiania arrangements of a like description were made,
and the hopeful traveller regarded with some satisfaction
"the channels which had been opened in the most influential
parts of the country for the dissemination of the pure Word
of God."

Immediate good was no doubt effected by this tour in
the North in 1828, and the old friendly relations were
confirmed ; but with the cessation of pecuniary assistance,
the restriction of grants almost entirely to the New Testa-
ment, and the rarity of personal visitation, the benevolent

i834l THE NEED FOR AGENCIES 457

operations of the parent Society were narrowly limited in
comparison with what they had been. It became evident
that the one satisfactory prospect of maintaining a close
connection with the vast peninsula was by an extension of
the agency system which was being adopted for Central
Europe. Initial steps in that direction had already been
taken by Dr Pinkerton ; but the survey made by the Hon.
Charles Shore during a tour in 1831 — the year in which the
Swedes celebrated the millenary of the introduction of
Christianity1 and the tercentenary of the Confession of
Augsburg — demonstrated the necessity for measures being
taken on a vigorous and comprehensive scale.

In Norway Mr Shore discovered that the only Bible
Society which retained any degree of energy was that of
Christiania. It had circulated a large number of Testa-
ments, but it had practically confined itself to meeting
demands, instead of stimulating them by means of Auxiliaries
and frequent correspondence. In Bergen there was no
society, though individuals had exerted themselves in distri-
buting the Scriptures. In Trondhjem the Bishop, through
indisposition, had withdrawn from all religious institutions ;
correspondence in connection with Christian efforts had
ceased, and the Bible cause was well-nigh extinct. Although
even in the unfrequented wilds it was rare to enter a cottage
in which there was not some religious book, still the Bible,
and especially the New Testament in separate form, were
greatly needed. In the sister kingdom matters were on
a better footing. The Swedish Society was " eminently
flourishing." At the same time, it was pre-engaged too
completely to afford any assistance to Norway, with which
all intercourse had ceased ; and there was ample occasion

1 The first apostle to Sweden was St Anskar or Ansgar, a monk of Corbie Abbey,
near Amiens, who landed in 831 ; a faithful heroic soul, to be remembered with glad-
ness among the wild figures of that age. "One miracle," he once said, "I would,
if worthy, ask the Lord to grant me : that by His grace He would make me a good
man."

458 NORTHERN EUROPE AND APOCRYPHA [1817-

for the assistance of the British Society among those who
were too poor to pay <the full price for the Scriptures.

No more acceptable and competent representative than
its old friend Dr Paterson could the parent Society
have selected to build up the agency system that was now
in contemplation ; and he was fortunately in a position to
comply with the request that he should once more traverse
the ground which had grown familiar to him twenty years
before. He left Harwich in April 1832, and, after cover-
ing a distance of more than 4500 miles, reached home in
September. Everywhere he was received with open arms.
If the Bible Societies in Sweden still adhered to their
traditional Bible, they had no objection to circulate the
canonical version. At Stockholm he founded an independent
agency, the personnel of which was warmly approved by
the Swedish Society ; provided for the printing of successive
editions of the Scriptures as they were required ; and
arranged that the Auxiliaries in Finland should henceforth
be included in the field of the agency's operations. Of
the work that had already been accomplished he spoke
highly. Considering the scantiness of its resources, the
poverty of the people, and the vast tracts of country covered
by its labours, no other continental society had done
nearly so much as the Swedish. Yet it was known that
not one-half of the families in the kingdom possessed the
New Testament, and not one-sixth the complete Bible.
"I do think," he added, "that there is more encourage-
ment at present to labour in this part of the Lord's vine-
yard than at any former period. There is a better spirit
existing. They are willing to help themselves to the
utmost of their power ; and they are willing, at the same
time, to receive whatever help their friends in England
are pleased to afford them."

In Norway, though little had yet been done, there were
many difficulties to contend with, of which only those who

'834l DR PATERSON'S TOUR 459

knew the country were aware. There was, however, a
growing disposition to use greater exertion. On the
question of the Apocrypha, the leading men of Christiania
were of the same mind as the Bishop of Upsala, and had
even proposed to leave it out of their Bibles ; but appre-
hension of public distrust and displeasure had prevented
them from taking this course. Here, too, Dr Paterson
established an agency, and made arrangements for printing
a constant supply of the Scriptures, and branches were
formed at Christiansand, Stavanger, Bergen, and Trondhjem.
From Christiania he travelled to the capital of the old
Norse kings, " almost the whole way through a deep,
narrow glen, in which the clergy live from about fifty to
sixty miles asunder." For leagues he did not see a
house, and "on each side of the glen, to the distance of
forty miles and more, all was mere wilderness." Rivers
in spate and roads broken up by the rain retarded his
progress. From Trondhjem he crossed the Dovrefjeld to
Bergen. It was July, and bitterly cold, with snow white
upon the mountain ridges, and snow driving along the
foot-hills — a veritable glimpse of Jotunheim, with the old
shaggy giants of frost and tempest still alive among cloudy
rocks. The further he went the clearer it became to him
that, to keep in touch with the people of this tumbled fell-
country of inhospitable distances, a travelling agent — a
young, devoted, and adventurous representative — was
absolutely necessary, so soon as the various depots had
been properly stocked. Bergen he considered the most
important point in Norway for a Bible depot. Besides
the extensive and most destitute district at its own
door, it commanded the whole coast from Stavanger
to the North Cape. At least 200 fishing-vessels from
the north visited it twice a year to dispose of their fish
and procure supplies. It could not only provide their
crews with the Scriptures, but through them had the

460 NORTHERN EUROPE AND APOCRYPHA [1817-

means of sending to the poor people all along the sea-
board. There was a considerable trade, too, with France,
Spain, and Italy, and through the sea-farers from those
countries many copies in various tongues might be distri-
buted abroad.

From Bergen he went to Stavanger, a distance of about
a hundred and twenty miles, in an open boat. The weather
was fine, but Dr Paterson was in his fifty-sixth year — not
now that strength which in old days "roughed it" gaily
on the Kalmuk steppes and in the passes of the Caucasus.
"1 am far from well," he wrote, "need rest, but can get
none, nor do I expect any till I get on board a vessel for
dear home."

The report for the last year of this period showed
that the Bible cause was making steady progress in the
north. The Swedish Society had now distributed in all
368,041 copies of the Scriptures. Large as the total was,
it was 115,000 less than the increase of population since
1815, and 176,000 less than the number of householders
in the kingdom. The agency at Stockholm had been
active both at home and among the Auxiliaries in Finland,
and the London Committee had enlarged its powers and
increased the efficiency of its organisation. In Norway
the agency at Christiania had issued an edition of the
New Testament, and was now busy with one of the
whole Bible without the Apocrypha ; while the other
agencies were diligently carrying on the work of dis-
tribution from their various depots.

The Danish Societies had circulated an aggregate of
203,314 Bibles and Testaments in Denmark, the Duchies,
and Iceland, and to the Greenland version had now been
added the books of Job, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and
Ruth.

The grants voted during this second period to
Denmark, Sweden, and Norway amounted to ,£14,435 —

i«34] THE GRANTS FOR THE PERIOD 461

^6442 up to the date of the Apocrypha decision, and
£7993 afterwards. The first of these sums went almost
entirely to the societies ; of the latter, ^3912 was
administered by the societies, ^2410 by correspondents
and friends, and ,£1671 by the agencies.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I

CHAPTER i. p. 6. The " sweet Welsh maiden " was Mary Jones, variously
described as of Cwrt Abergwynolwyn, or Llanvihangel — but more correctly,
one gathers, of T/nyddol, a small cottage (now a ruin) situated in a narrow
but beautiful cwm or valley on the south-west side of Cader Idris, in the
parish of Llanvihangel-y-Pennant, Merioneth, and about a quarter of a mile
from Llanvihangel, and two miles from Abergwynolwyn. Her story appears
to have been published for the first time in the Bible Society's Monthly
Reporter for January 1867, from which I reproduce it, with the Editor's
prefatory note : —

The Rev. D. Rowlands, who has lately been attending several meetings
of the Society in Merionethshire, has furnished a most satisfactory account,
etc. ... He speaks of the following incident, which he heard from the lips
of a warm friend of the Society, as being well authenticated : —

" It is not long since Lewis William of Llanfachreth died [i4th August
1862, aged 88]. He was a very pious man, exceedingly beloved by all that
knew him. He died in a good old age. In his younger days he used to
keep one of Mr Charles's ' circular' schools, and there he taught the children
the little English he knew himself ; but especially he taught them to read
their Bible in their own language, and took care to ground them in the great
truths of religion. Among others that attended his school there was a young
girl of some fourteen or fifteen years of age, called Mary Jones, of Cwrt
Aberganolwyn : she very soon learned to read, and it appears that her heart
was opened by the same divine grace that opened the heart of Lydia to receive
the Word of Eternal Life. But she had no Bible herself. There was a copy
in the house of a relative two miles off, and there she used to go very often,
in order to slake her thirst for the Water of Life. Presently she began to
yearn for a copy of her own, and inquired would it not be possible for her to
get a Bible somewhere. She had collected a little money to buy one, but
knew not where to turn her face for a copy. Somebody told her that the
likeliest place for her to find a Bible would be at Mr Charles's, at Bala, and
that it was possible that he could get her one. The little maiden determined
that she would not sleep before she reached Bala and ascertained if she
could get a Bible there. She had a long distance to go, something like
twenty-eight miles, but she walked it cheerily, her young heart sustained by
the hope of finding at the end of her journey the long-yearned-for treasure.
VOL. I. 2 G ^

466 APPENDIX I

When she reached Bala, she inquired for the house of Mr Charles. When
she found it, she was told that Mr Charles had gone to rest, for it was his
custom to retire early, and to rise about five o'clock in the morning to
prosecute his multifarious and most important labours. She was taken, after
she had told her errand, to the house of a worthy man there, David Edward,
an elder with the Calvinistic Methodists. . . . Between five and six the next
morning, David Edward and the little girl were in the street, and on their
way to Mr Charles's. Yes, as usual, the light was in the window of his
study ; the indefatigable man was already hard at work in the service of his
blessed Master. They knocked, and were received in. David Edward
introduced the little girl, and her story was told. ' Really,' said Mr Charles,
' I am very sorry that she should have come from such a distance, but
I fear indeed that I cannot spare her a copy, Bibles are so very scarce.'
This was too much for the poor girl : she wept as if she would break her
heart. And that again was too much for Mr Charles : he said that she
should have a Bible. He reached her a copy, she paid him the money, and
there the three stood, their hearts too full for utterance, and their tears
streaming from their eyes : the girl now weeping sweet tears of unutterable
joy : Mr Charles shedding tears of mingled sorrow for his country's famine
for the Word of God, and of holy sympathy with that young disciple who so
rejoiced in the possession of the great treasure : while good David Edward
was overpowered with the scene before him, and he also wept like a child.
What a subject for a grand painting, that scene in Mr Charles's study by
candle-light at six o'clock in the morning ! When Mr Charles was able to
speak, he said, ' Well, David Edward, is not this very sad, that there should
be such a scarcity of Bibles in the country, and that this poor girl should
thus have walked some twenty-eight or thirty miles in order to try to get
a copy ? If something can be done to alter this state of things, I will not
rest till it is accomplished.' "

Such is the story. Mr Rowlands adds : —

" However he may have been impressed with similar circumstances in
other places, it is certain that he [Mr Charles] could not forget Mary Jones
of Cwrt Abergynolwyn, until on that memorable occasion in the London
Tavern 1 he had the opportunity of pleading the poverty for Bibles which
was felt so deeply among his countrymen, and asking the wonderful
question about forming a society for the permanent supply of Wales,
which suggested the immortal answer from the Rev. Joseph Hughes, ' If for
Wales, why not for the British Empire? and if for the British Empire, why
not for the world?'"

Mary Jones was born on the i6th December 1784, and was baptized on
the igth, according to the register of the church at Llanvihangel. As may be

1 Not at the London Tavern, but at a committee meeting of the Religious Tract
Society at Mr Hardcastle's, Old Swan Stairs, Upper Thames Street, near London
Bridge.

APPENDIX I 467

seen in her own handwriting in her Bible preserved at the Bible House, she
bought the book in 1800, in the sixteenth year of her age. The volume itself,
a stout octavo, belonged to the edition issued by the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge in 1799 — the last edition of the Welsh Bible prior to the
foundation of the Bible Society. Mary married Thomas Lewis, a weaver of
Bryncrug : died, according to the register, on the 2Qth December 1864 ; and
was laid to rest in Bryncrug churchyard, where a gravestone was erected by
those who loved to recall the incident of her girlhood and her devotion
through life to the Bible and to all Bible work.

The Monthly Reporter for 1896 (p. 92) contains "A Visit to Mary
Jones," the date of which is the I5th of August 1863. The article is
unsigned, and the writer, or very possibly the Editor, makes the mistake of
assigning Mary's death to 1869, but the account, with its characteristic
touch, " I had a good wash in a brook before I entered the town, and I put
on my shoes" agrees very closely with the narrative given above.

The latest personal reference to Mary Jones occurs in a charming sketch
by Mr Crayden Edmunds, M.A. (sometime secretary of the Calcutta
Auxiliary), entitled " Bible Work in Assam," in the Monthly Reporter for
1902, p. 62: — "At the afternoon service I told [the Khasi Christians at
Cherra Poonjee] the story of Mary Jones, and this was well driven home
when Dr Roberts [the translator of the Khasi Old Testament and the
reviser of the New] declared that he had both seen and spoken to Mary her-
self, when he visited the village of Bryncrug many years ago. This was the
first time I had ever met any one who had enjoyed that privilege."

An account of Mary Jones was written in Welsh and published in 1879
by Robert Oliver Rees, of Dolgelly, who got his materials from Lewis
Williams, the authority (notwithstanding the additional " s " ) of the story
transcribed above, and from the Rev. Robert Griffiths, of Bryncrug, to whom
Mary left her Bible. This account, a MS. translation of which is pre-
served by the Society, held certainly the first place among "the best
materials" from which M.E.R. (Miss Ropes) collected and retold The Story
of Mary Jones and Her Bible, published in 1882.

Mr Griffiths of Bryncrug gave Mary's Bible to Rees, and he committed
it to the custody of the trustees of Bala College. Mr Coles of Dorking
(who joined the Society in 1856 and died in 1882) paid many visits to Bala,
to learn all that could be gathered about the life of Mary Jones, and as a
friend of M.E.R., he probably contributed to her "best materials." It
was through his interposition that Mary's Bible was secured for the Society's
Library, where it is still shown to visitors.

The story — clear, straightforward, and, notwithstanding some minor
discrepancies due to loose writing, palpably authentic — has long been the
delight of lovers of the Bible. It is just one of those beautiful and touching
incidents which are so often found associated with great movements or
events that stir the heart and imagination of the people ; which, when they
fail to happen in reality, the spirit of folklore creates : and which, when

468 APPENDIX I

historically true, are frequently invested with an importance whereto, when
placed in their correct historical perspective, they are by no means entitled.
True in itself, the story of Mary Jones has thus been given an unwarranted
prominence. For example, in the Monthly Reporter for 1882, we read of
" Mary Jones, the girl whose meeting with the Rev. Thomas Charles
suggested to the latter the idea of establishing a society for the supply of
the Scriptures."

As early as 1787 — more than a dozen years before the incident occurred
— Mr Charles was deploring to Thomas Scott the dearth of Bibles in Wales :
in 1791 his friend, the Rev. Thomas Jones of Creaton, was projecting schemes
for the relief of the Principality ; and a " plan " was eventually initiated by
Mr Jones, and came little short of being a proposal for a Bible Society in
Wales for Wales. Indeed it even foreshadowed in some degree the most
remarkable characteristic in the constitution of the Bible Society itself: —
" We must try not to accommodate any particular sort [denomination, one
takes the writer to mean], but all men that want Bibles, and upon the terms
they can afford."

When Mr Charles went to London at the close of 1802, it was not his
intention to establish a society of any description, but to ask for contribu-
tions in aid of the " plan," arranged in the preceding summer, for contracting
with a printer for an edition of the Welsh Bible and for raising a fund
to defray the expense of a reduction of price and of gratuitous distribution
among the poor. The project of forming a society for the supply of Welsh
Bibles occurred to him in London. " While awake in bed, as he told me
himself," writes his biographer Morgan, "the idea of having a Bible Society
established in London on a similar basis to the Tract Society occurred
to his mind, and he was so pleased with it that he instantly arose, dressed
himself, and went out to consult some friends on the subject," and the first
person he met was Mr Tarn of the Religious Tract Society.

Having regard, then, to the whole Biblical movement in Wales, and
bearing in mind how it was connected, remotely, with the circulating schools
of Griffith Jones, " the morning-star of the Welsh Evangelical Revival,"
and proximately with the great spiritual awakening in North Wales in
1791-3, one can regard the incident of Mary Jones as being, in its rela-
tion to the founding of the Bible Society, no more than a beautiful and
affecting illustration of the dearth of the Scriptures in Wales and of the
desire of the people to possess them, which did actually lead to the establish-
ment of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Another point may here be briefly dealt with. In the Society's
Monthly Extracts for January 1841 there occurs, for the first time, a
reference to what appears to be another well-known and wholly different
story. One of the Society's agents relates how a clergyman in Sunday
school, " intending to speak of the little Welsh girl's tears," asked if any of
the children knew the origin of the Bible Society ; whereupon one small
child, to his great delight, answered, " God." So far as I can learn, the first

APPENDIX I 469

printed version of this story of "the little Welsh girl's tears" appeared in
the Jubilee Memorial of the Religious Tract Society as follows : —

"Several circumstances, apparently trivial in themselves, led to the
formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society. In the year 1802, the
Rev. Thomas Charles of Bala was walking in the streets of that town, when
he met a child who attended his ministry. He inquired if she could repeat
the text from which he had preached on the preceding Sunday. Instead of
giving a prompt reply, as she had been accustomed to do, she remained
silent. ' Can you not tell me the text, my little girl ? ' repeated Mr Charles.
The child wept, but was still silent. At length she said, ' The weather, sir,
has been so bad that I could not get to read the Bible.' This remark
surprised the good man, and he exclaimed, ' Could you not get to read the
Bible ? how was that ? ' The reason was soon ascertained : there was no
copy to which she could gain access, either at her own home or among her
friends : and she was accustomed to travel every week seven miles over the
hills to a place where she could obtain a Welsh Bible, to read the chapter
from which the minister took his text. But during that week the cold and
stormy weather had prevented her usual journey. . . . This incident made
a deep impression on the benevolent mind of Mr Charles, and increased the
anxiety he had long felt to secure for the Welsh a good supply of the
Scriptures in their own tongue."

From this time onward allusions to this second story are not uncommon.
At the anniversary meeting of the Society in the Jubilee Year, Bishop
M'llvaine, the special envoy from the American Bible Society, referred to
the nameless little girl who could not repeat the text. In the same year,
Charles's grandson, the Rev. D. Charles, President of Trerecca College,
spoke of the tears of the little Welsh girl when asked for the text of a
sermon. Now, two things are obvious. The maiden from Llanvihangel who
bought a Bible in 1800 could not have been the Bala child who had no Bible
in 1802 ; and if the Society originated in the tears of the first, it could not
have originated in the tears of the second also.

Let us look at this story of the child and the text, and see how far it
carries conviction to the mind of the reader. Observe the excuse of the
child : The weather was " so bad that I could not get to read the Bible " ;
and note the surprise of Mr Charles : " Could you not get to read the
Bible? hoiv was that?" This from the man who of all men knew of the
dearth of Bibles in Wales. Bibles were so rare even in Bala that one had
to go into the hills to get a sight of one. Yet " this remark surprised the
good man." Consider next the explanation, — " She was accustomed to
travel every week seven miles, to read the chapter," etc. Every week —
seven miles ! — and this was " a little girl," a " child." Grant the
possibility, suppose the seven miles to include the return home. Is the
story probable? Finally, here is a child who attended Mr Charles's
ministry, a thoughtful little girl, accustomed to give prompt replies when
asked about texts, in a small town where every one knew his neighbour's

470 APPENDIX I

concerns ; and Mr Charles, a model minister, does not know that she has
no Bible, and has never heard that she has been " accustomed " to travel
every week to a place where she can obtain the use of one.

This second story lacks the obvious credibility of the first, but a careful
comparison of the two stories suggests the simple explanation that they are
two versions — one substantially accurate, the other extremely inaccurate —
of the same incident. The accurate version is that of the Rev. D. Rowlands,
first published in 1867 ; the other is that which floated from meeting to meet-
ing, for nearly fifty years after the event, until it got into print in the pages
of the Jubilee Memorial of the Religious Tract Society. Probably enough,
in urging the need for some "new and extraordinary means" (Owen, vol. i.
p. 15), Mr Charles spoke of Mary's going over the hills to read the Bible
as an affecting instance of the dearth in his own district, just as, at the
meeting of the Tract Society in May 1803, "the Rev. Mr Knight related an
instance of a man who had travelled sixty miles over the snow in Nova Scotia
to obtain a Bible." How much of the story Mr Charles told, and how often
he told it, we do not know (we do know that he did not attach to it the
importance with which it was afterwards invested), but out of his casual
and illustrative account of the incident, repeated, and in all likelihood
varied and expanded as it passed from mouth to mouth, arose the child of
the text — a curiously distorted foreshadow of the real Mary of Llanvihangel.
The scene in each narrative was Bala : one girl often went two miles to
read the Bible, the other travelled seven miles weekly ; both wept memor-
able tears ; both illustrated the dearth of the Scriptures in Wales. But
while there are persons yet alive who spoke with Mary, while hundreds have
stood by her grave and thousands have seen her Bible, the unconvincing
child of tearful excuses has passed from our midst without leaving a trace
of " a local habitation or a name."

By this simple and natural explanation — and that it is natural many
examples of stories similarly duplicated and distorted could be adduced to
show — we shall not only solve a difficulty, but we shall add something in
confirmation of the truth of the tender and lovely story of Mary Jones and
her Bible.

THE AUXILIARY SYSTEM IN ENGLAND AND WALES
UP TO I8I6-I7.1

Established.

1806 — April

Auxiliaries.

. Birmingham Association

Total Contributions
to the British and
F o r e i gn Bible
Society to date.

IO

1809— 28th March
3oth March

3oth July .
25th October
8th December

Reading

Nottingham

Branch — Greasley and Eastwood.

Newcastle-on-Tyne

Branch - Morpeth.
Leeds ... ...

Branch — Rawdon.

(Devon and) Exeter

Branches — Axminster, Collumpton,
Honiton, Minor Devon and Exeter,
N. Devon, Tiverton, Torquay,
Sidmouth.
Patronage — Reading : The Bishop of Salisbury.

Ne\vcastle-on-Tyne : The Bishop of

Durham.

Leeds : The Earl of Harewood.
Exeter : Earl Fortescue.

1 8 10 — 4th January
1 5th January

Manchester and Salford ....
Branches — Altringham, Bacup, Old-
ham, Rochdale, Warrington.

Kendal

Branches — Appleby and Temple
Sowerby, Kirkby Lonsdale.

,£4,6

2,232
3,881

6,728
4,348

13,303

1 The following figures show the gross receipts from the Auxiliaries, to which in
most cases a large proportion was returned in the shape of •Bibles and Testaments at
cost price. Only the principal patrons are here mentioned. Auxiliaries, the date
of the formation of which is not recorded, are arranged in the order in which they
appear in the reports of the Society.

471

472

APPENDIX II

Established.

Auxiliaries.

i 8 10 — ist February .
5th February .
1 9th February .
22nd March
27th April
5th May
26th June

24th September
26th October .

Total Contributions
to the British and
Foreig n Bible
Society to date.

Bristol

Sheffield

Leicester .......

Hull

Swansea .......

Uttoxeter (see Staffordshire)

Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland, and
Monkwearmouth

Neath

Uxbridge . . . .

Huddersfield

Rotherham

Cornwall

Branches— -St Austell, St Columb, Fal-
mouth, Helston, Lostwithiel, Padstow,
Penryn, Penzance, Redruth, Truro.
Patronage — Bristol : The Bishop of Bristol.

Sheffield : Earl Fitzwilliam.

Swansea : The Bishop of St David's.

Neath : Lord Vernon.

Uxbridge : Lord Gambier.

Rotherham : Viscount Milton.

Cornwall : Lord Falmouth.

1811 — 2oth February
25th March

1 9th April
July

2nd August
nth September

26th October .
28th November

Weymouth (see Dorset).

Liverpool.

Branch — St Helen's.

Warrington (see Manchester and Salford).
Colchester and East Essex
Branches — Coggeshall, Hinckford Hun-
dred (50 parishes), Mersea Island,
Witham, Wivenhoe.

Derby and County . . ...

Norwich and Norfolk ....
Branches — Acle, Downham, East Dere-
ham, Fakenham, Harleston, Holt,
Loddon, Long Stratton, Lynn, North
Walsham, Reepham, Swaffham,
Wymondham, Yarmouth.
High Wycombe and S. Bucks.
Branch — Marlow.

Evesham

Branch — Alcester.

£1 5,708
4,872
5,583
4,367
1,386

432
2,272
1,190

922
6,346

6,806

10,744

3,034
12,688

2,215

1,122

APPENDIX II

473

Established.

1811— 28th November

Auxiliaries.

Total Contributions
to the British and
Fore ign Bible
Society to date.

Bedfordshire .£5,226

Branches — Ampthill, Biggleswade and
Potton, Harrold, Leighton Buzzard,
Luton, Risley and Woburn, Dun-
stable.

loth December Suffolk 8,119

E. Division, Ipswich.
W. Division, Bury.

Branches — Aldborough, Beccles, Low-
estoft, Southwold, Stowmarket, Sud-
bury, Woodbridge.

1 2th December Cambridge and County . . . . 3,7 12
Branches — Haslingfield, Melbourn,

Swavesey and Over Waterbeach.

1 3th December Hitchin and Baldock .... 1,831

3 ist December Huntingdonshire . . . ... 1,700

Sussex, E 6,283

Stafford and County .... 7,250
Branches — Darlaston, Newcastle, Tarn-
worth, Uttoxeter.

Darlington 2,341

Branches — Barnard Castle, Bishop
Auckland, Richmond, Staindrop,
Yarm.

Saffron Walden 1,886

Maidenhead 1,620

Macclesfield 772

Launceston and North Cornwall . . 264

Chesterfield 960

Plymouth, Plymouth Dock, and Stone-
house 2,155

Shrewsbury 3,877

Branches — Madeley, Wellington,
Newport.

Coventry 37

Sutton Coldfield ...'.. 522

Dudley . . . . . . 2,661

Bradford 1,551

Bridlington . . . . . • 325

Halifax 2,879

Howden (Yorkshire) .... 834

Knaresboro' and Harrogate . . . 1,100

,474 APPENDIX II

Total Contributions
to the British and

Established. Auxiliaries. Foreign Bible

Society to date.

1811 — 3ist December . Scarboro' >£ijO59

Whitby 1,010

Branch — Pickering.
Patronage — Liverpool : The Earl of Derby.

Colchester : The Earl of Chatham, the
Marquis of Tavistock, Lord St John.

Derbyand County : Lord G. H. Cavendish.

Norwich and County : The Bishop of
Norwich, the Earl of Orford, Lord
Calthorpe, Viscount Anson.

High Wycombe and South Bucks : The
Marquis of Buckingham, the Earl of
Cardigan, Earl Temple, Viscount
Hampden, Viscount Mahon, Lord
Grenville, Lord Carrington, Lord
Gardner.

Evesham : The Earl of Coventry, Lord
North wick.

Bedfordshire : The Duke of Bedford.

Suffolk : The Duke of Grafton, the Mar-
quis of Cornwallis, the Earl of Dysart,
the Earl of Bristol, the Earl of Yar-
mouth, Lord Charles Fitzroy, Lord
Henry Fitzroy, Lord Henniker.

Cambridge and County : H.R.H. the
Duke of Gloucester (Chancellor of the
University), the Duke of Bedford, the
Earl of Hardwicke (Lord-Lieutenant of
the County and High Steward of the
University,) the Bishop of Bristol
(Master of Trinity), the Bishop of
Llandaff, the Earl of Bristol, Lord
Francis Osborne, M.P,, Lord Headley,
the Right Hon. Sir William Wynne
(Master of Trinity Hall), Dean Milnerof
Carlisle (President of Queens' College),
Rev. Dr Davy (Master of Caius).

Huntingdonshire : The Duke of Man-
chester, the Earl of Sandwich, the Earl
of Carysfort, Viscount Hitchinbrook,
Viscount Proby Nelson, Lord Frederick
Montague.

APPENDIX II

475

Established.

Auxiliaries.

Total Contributions
to the British and
Foreign Bible
Society to date.

Patronage— Sussex East : H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex,
the Earl of Ashburnham, the Earl of
Egremont, Viscount Hampden, Lord
George Cavendish, Lord Colchester.

Stafford and County : Viscount Anson.

Darlington : Viscount Bernard.

Saffron Walden : Lord Braybrooke.

Maidenhead : Viscount Kirkwall, Lord
Boston, Lord Riversdale.

Sutton Coldfield : Lord Middleton.

Dudley : Viscount Dudley.

1812 — 2nd January

7th January
1 9th January

24th January

22nd February.
23rd March

loth March
1 3th March
27th May

3rd June
6th August
1 5th October .
1 7th December
December

Great Marlow (see High Wycombe).
Bucks, North . . ...

Branches — Newport Pagnell and Olney.

Wallingford

York

Branches — Malton, Easingwold.
Hertford

Branches — St Albans, Bishop's Stort-
ford, Tring and Berkhampstead.

Blackheath

Chelmsford and Essex, W.

Branches — Billericay, Dunmow,
Maiden, Rumford, Rochford Hundred.

Bath

Tewkesbury

Northampton and County

Branches — Kettering, Oundle, Thrap-

ston, Wellingborough.
Southwark ......

London, City of .....

London, East

Westminster

London, North, and Islington

London, North Britons ....

London, Ordnance, Tower

London, Jewry Street ....

Chester and County

Branches — Congleton, Knutsford,

North wich, Broxon
Aberystwith ......

1,152
4,328

2,478

3,858

2,614

793

4,104

13,039
8,651
2,300
6,720

3,379
502
665
137

1,711

476 APPENDIX II

Total Contributions
to the British and

Established. Auxiliaries. Foreign Bible

Society to date.

1812 — I9th December . Anglesea ,£3,089

Carmarthen 1,210

Carnarvonshire 2,071

Denbighshire (Ruthin) .... 2,749
Branches — Abergele, Denbigh, Llan-
drillo, Llangollen, Llarwst, Wrexham.

Llanfair 456

Branch — Myfod.

Lleyn and Eifionydd .... 1,463

Merionethshire (Bala) .... 3,414
Branches — Barmouth, Corwen and
Edernion, Dolgelly, Dyffryn, Gwyn-
frun and Harlech, Towyn, Traws-
fynudd, Festiniog, Maentwrog,
Llanfrothen and Penrhyn, Yspyty.

Pembrokeshire !>95i

Stockport 1,160

Cornwall East 290

Whitehaven 921

Bideford 284

Kingsbridge 332

Tavistock 491

Durham City 479

Stockton-on-Tees 349

Essex, South-West 2,039

Branch — Epping.
Bourton-on-the-Water (Gloucester) . 411

Guernsey V97

Portsmouth Dockyard .... 699

Kent (Maidstone) 5,205

Branches — Rochester and Chatham,
Sevenoaks and Westerham, Sutton,
Tunbridge, Gravesend and Milton.

Canterbury 1,510

Gloucester and County .... 4,502
Branches — Forest of Dean, Nailsworth,
Tetbury, Thornbury.

Man, Isle of 494

Hackney and Stoke Newington . . i,743

Middlesex, North-East .... 1,593

North Shields and Tynemouth . . 877

Tindale Ward (Northumberland) . . 1,798

Branches — Alston, Weardale.

APPENDIX II 477

Total Contributions
to the British and

Established. Auxiliaries. Foreign Bible

Society to date.

1812 — iQth December Henley ,£1,732

Rutland and Stamford .... 1,791

Frome 1,438

South Petherton (Somerset) . . . 222

Wellington (Somerset) .... 841

Yeovil 655

West Bromwich and Wednesbury . . 546

Surrey (Guildford) 4,510

Branches — Dorking, Chertsey, and
Egham, Epsom, Farnham, Godalm-
ing, Kingston.

Camberwell !,993

Clapham 3,306

Wiltshire 4,35°

Branches — Bradford, Corsham, Melks-
ham, Trowbridge, Warminster,
Westbury, Wilton.

Stourbridge 695

Beverley 320

Doncaster ...... 968

Pontefract 893

Patronage — Bucks, North ; The Marquis of Bucking-
ham.
Wallingford : The Bishop of Salisbury,

the Earl of Radnor.
Hertfordshire : Viscount Grimston, Lord

John Townshend, M.P.
Blackheath: H.R.H. the Princess of

Wales, the Earl of Dartmouth, the

Dean of Windsor.
Bath : The Marquis of Bath, the Earl of

Leven and Melville, the Earl of Cork

and Orrery.
Chelmsford and Essex, W. : Lord Bray-

brooke.

Tewkesbury : The Earl of Coventry.
Northampton : The Duke of Grafton,

Earl Spencer, the Earl of Pomfret, the

Earl of Northampton, Earl Carysfort,

Viscount Milton, Lord Compton.
Chester : The Earl of Stamford and

Warrington.

478

APPENDIX II

Total Contributions
to the British and

Established. Auxiliaries. Foreign Bible

Society to date.

Patronage — Anglesea : The Earl of Uxbridge.

Stockport : Viscount Bulkeley

Kent : H.R.H. the Duke of Kent, the
Earl of Romney.

Tavistock : The Duke of Bedford.

Guernsey : Admiral Sir James Saumarez.

Gloucester : The Duke of Norfolk, the
Duke of Beaufort.

Man, Isle of: The Bishop of Sodor and
Man, the Duke of Atholl.

Hackney : The Marquis of Downshire.

Wellington : The Marquis of Wellington.

West Bromwich : The Countess of Dart-
mouth.

Surrey : Earl of Onslow.

Camberwell : Their Royal Highnesses, the
Dukes of Kent, Sussex, and Cambridge.

Stourbridge : Lord Foley.

Doncaster : Earl Fitzwilliam.

Pontefract : The Earl of Mexborough.

Southwark : The Earl of Rothes, Earl
Spencer.

London, City of: Sir Claudius Stephen
Hunter, Bart. (Lord Mayor).

London, East : The Earl of Moira.

Westminster : Their Royal Highnesses,
the Dukes of York, Kent, Cumber-
land, Sussex, and Cambridge.

London, North : The Marquis of North-
ampton.

1813 — 1 6th February
25th February
1 8th March
2 ist April

25th June

3rd August
23rd September

London, North-East ....

Do., Bloomsbury and St Pancras

Do., North-West ....
Somersetshire . . . - .

Branches — Bridgewater, Bruton, Quan-
tock, Ringwood, Taunton, Wells,
Western, Northern, (Wrington)
Oxford and County

Branches — Chipping Norton, Banbury

Flintshire

Cumberland

Branches — Brampton, Cockermouth,

2,759

938
3,207

APPENDIX II 479

Total Contributions
to the British and

Established. Auxiliaries. Foreign Bible

Society to date.

1813 — 23rd September . Ireby, Keswick, Maryport, Penrith,

Wigton.
Abingdon . . . . . . . .£910

Ely, Isle of 1>S6°

Branch — Long Sutton.

Workington 310

Chapel-en-le- Frith ..... 302

Lymington 63

Hants, North-East !>443

Branch — Alton.
Jersey ....... 339

Cinque Ports !>58o

Branches — Tenterden and Rye, Folke-
stone.

Sheppey, Isle of 802

Kent, Weald of (Cranbrook) . . . 295

Preston 1,080

Boston 899

Gainsborough 801

Bolton-le- Moors 2,530

Brecon 1,400

Branch — Caerphilly.

Cardigan 739

Branches — Newcastle-Emlyn, Llwynda-
fydd.

Llanidloes 149

Branches — Carno, Llandinam, Llangir-
rig, Llanwonog, Trefeghoys.

Machynlleth 418

Merthyr-Tydvil 433

London, Welsh i>24i

Mansfield, Notts 994

Ilminster 120

Worcester and County . . . . 2,511

Berwick-on-Tweed 430

Patronage — London, N.E. : The Earl of Darnley.
Bloomsbury : The Duke of Bedford.
London, N.W. : Lord Teignmouth.
Somersetshire : The Earl of Egmont, the
Hon. and Rev. Dr Ryder, Dean of
Wells (afterwards Bishop of Glou-
cester).

480 APPENDIX II

Total Contributions
to the British and
Foreign Bible
Established. Auxiliaries. Society to date.

Patronage — Oxford : The Bishop of Durham, the Duke
of Marlborough, Lord Grenville.

Flintshire : The Earl of Grosvenor.

Cumberland : Viscount Morpeth, the
Dean of Carlisle.

Abingdon : The Earl of Harcourt.

Ely, Isle of : The Earl of Hardwicke.

Hants, N.E. : Lord Bolton.

Jersey : His Excellency Lieut.-Gen. Don.

Cinque Ports : The Earl of Liverpool.

Brecon : The Duke of Beaufort.

Worcestershire : The Earl of Coventry.

1814 — agth August . Herefordshire ^629

Newbury ....... 680

Dorsetshire 4,125

Branches — Blandford, Bridport, Dor-
chester, Lyme, Poole, Shaftesbury,
Sherborne, Wareham, Weymouth,
Cerne.

Hampshire (Winchester) .... 1,856
Branches — Southampton, Hants, S.W.
Hants, E.

Lincoln, N.E 273

Spilsby and Alford 402

London, German (in the Savoy) . 122

Kensington, Chelsea, Fulham and

Hammersmith ..... 1,828

Abergavenny 129

Glendale Ward (Northumberland) . . 300

Martock (Somerset) .... 162

Bradford Juvenile 50

Dewsbury ...... 296

Haworth 219

Keighley 33°

Wakefield 1,523

Bridgend 60

Patronage — Newbury : The Earl of Craven.
Dorsetshire : The Earl of Digby.
Hampshire : The Marquis of Winchester,

the Marquis of Buckingham.
Lincoln, N.E. : Lord Yarborough.

APPENDIX II 481

Total Contributions
to the British and
Foreign Bibl e
Established. Auxiliaries. Society to date.

Patronage — Spilsby and Alford : Lord Gwydyr.

Kensington, N. : H.R.H. the Duke of

Kent, H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex,

Lord Holland.
Glendale Ward (Northumberland) : Lord

Ossulton.

Keighley : Lord G. H. Cavendish.
Wakefield : Viscount Milton.

1815 . . . Aberdare ^42

Aylesbury, Vale of 174

London (Holborn Sunday School and

Portugal House) 273

Newport ....... 160

Alnwick 80

Wolverhampton 290

Barnsley and Staincross .... 534

Otley 76

Ripon 150

Patronage — Wolverhampton : The Earl of Harrowby.

1816 . . . Durham (W7eekly) 20

Bury (Lanes.) 100

Lancaster 312

Lincolnshire 298

Hampstead and Highgate . . . 5°°

Sussex, W. (Chichester)

Patronage — Lincolnshire : The Earl of Mexborough.
Hampstead and Highgate : Lady Wilson.

,£372,203

VOL. I. 2 H

482 APPENDIX II

THE AUXILIARY SYSTEM IN SCOTLAND
UP TO 1816-1817.

Total Contributions
to the British and

Established. Societies. Foreign Bible

Society up to date.

1809 — Edinburgh with its Branch Societies . . . . .£10,034 u 2
(President — Viscount Cathcart, Vice-

President — Lord Calthorpe.)
The Scottish Bible Society .... 300 o o

Lothian, E. i>io3 19 i

(President — Sir A. Lauder Dick.)

1810 — Lothian, W 436 o o

1811 — Aberdeen ^iSS° ° °

(President — The Marquis of Huntley.)

Aberdeen, Gilcomston Chapel 67 15 o

Arbroath 327 14 6

(President — The Earl of Northesk.)

Brechin 381 o o

Dumfriesshire, with Branches at Annan, and San-

quhar 1,023 8 o

(President— The Duke of Buccleuch. Vice-
Presidents— -The Earl of Dalkeith and
the Marquis of Queensberry.)
Dundee, with Branches at Meigle, Langleys and

Newtyle 787 19 o

Forfar and Strathmore 275 2 2

Glasgow, with its- Branch Societies .... 5,372 12 4

(President — The Earl of Glasgow.)
Montrose, with Branches at Craig, Dun, and Logic-
pert 638 i 8

1812 — Fife and Kinross-shire ...... 2,400 o o

(President — The Earl of Moray.)

Inverness 500 o o

Paisley (Penny-a-week) 251 o 3

Perthshire !j574 12 o

(Patron— The Duke of Atholl. President— Lord Gray.)

1813 — Ardrossan and Stevenston, with Branch at Kilbride. 38 o o

Clackmannanshire ....... 476 o o

Denny (Penny-a-week) 65 o o

Dumbarton . 60 o o

APPENDIX II 483

Total Contributions
to the British and

Established. Societies. Foreign Bible

Society up to date.

1813 — Greenock and Port Glasgow, W. Renfrewshire . £SS° ° o

Hamilton . 565 o o

(President — The Marquis of Douglas and Clydesdale.)

Irvine 86 7 6

{President — The Earl of Eglinton.)

Kilwinning 135 o o

Paisley and E. Renfrewshire 1,367 17 9

(President —The. Earl of Glasgow.)

Selkirkshire 151 19 6

Stirlingshire 2,060 o o

(President — The Earl of Dunmore.)

Wick ......... 120 o o

(President — The Earl of Caithness.)

1814 — Buchan 156 4 8

Elgin and Morayshire 310 o o

(President — The Earl of Moray.)

Gatehouse 20 o o

Kilsyth, with a Branch at Banton .... 48 o o

Rattray . 53 18 6

Rutherglen . . 20 o o

Stewarton ......... 24 o o

Thurso . . . . . . . . . 150 o o

1815 — Arran (Female) . 800

Ayrshire 550 o o

(President — The Earl of Eglinton.)

Cavers, near Hawick 3 6 10

The Cumbraes 770

Galloway 150 o o

(President — The Earl of Galloway.)

Kintyre 100 o o

Lower Strathendrick 77 o o

New Lanark 25 o o

Tulliallan 20 o o

1816— Beith (Female) 33 o o

TOTAL ,£34,454 16 n

APPENDIX III

FROM the accompanying plan it will be seen that the site of the Old
Bible House, 10 Earl Street, occupied the entire breadth of the roadway
of what is now Queen Victoria Street, a little to the east of the London,
Chatham and Dover Railway. The front of the house looked towards the
river ; at the west corner at the back a flight of steps led into Printing
House Square.

The immediate neighbourhood is alive with historical associations.
Here stood the wealthy monastery of the Black Friars, who left their
house in Holborn (the site of Lincoln's Inn) in 1275. At the Dissolution
"the magnificent church of the Dominicans was destroyed. Either
the hall of the abbey or a portion of the church was used as a store -

484

APPENDIX III 485

house for the 'properties' of pageants" (Besant, London, p. 178). In
consequence of the privilege of sanctuary belonging to the district, when
the Players were ejected from the City, " a playhouse was erected by
Shakespeare and his friends among the ruins, which remained standing
for a long time. Only a few years ago the extension of the Times offices
in Printing House Square brought to light many substantial remains."
(Op. tit.} Thanks to this old privilege of sanctuary, which preserved the
district from inclusion within the jurisdiction of London City, Noncon-
formists were able to gather together in Blackfriars when prevented by the
law from worshipping God according to the dictates of their conscience.
St Andrew by the Wardrobe, one of Wren's churches built after the Fire,
stands near, if not exactly on, the site of the church of the Black Friars
within whose walls Katharine of Arragon pleaded for justice, and
Parliament condemned Cardinal Wolsey.

Earl Street led, eastward, into Upper Thames Street. From the latter
a passage opened, a little to the west of London Bridge, on to Old Swan
Stairs, the spot on which the committee of the Religious Tract Society
projected the scheme of the Bible Society.

APPENDIX IV

THE BIBLE SOCIETIES OF CENTRAL EUROPE1

Grants from the
British and Foreign
Bible Society.

1804— THE GERMAN BIBLE SOCIETY (Nuremberg, Basel)

Editions printed to 1816-17 . . . ,£3,800

German . 20,000 Bibles . 15,000 Testaments.
French . 3,000 „ . 4,000 „

Romanese (two dialects) . 4,000 „

Italian .... 3,000 „

23,000 Bibles . 26,000 Testaments.

1805— THE BERLIN BIBLE SOCIETY ...... ,£3475

Bohemian . 8,000 Bibles

Polish . 8,000 „ . 4,000 Testaments.
1814— 2nd August— THE PRUSSIAN BIBLE SOCIETY (absorbing
the Berlin Society).

23,000 Bibles . 3,000 Testaments.
Auxiliaries — Potsdam (1814) ...... 100

Dantzic (1814) ...... 411

Halle Committee (1812)

Breslau ....... 500

Wesel (1815^ ...... 100

Cleve (1815)

Stralsund (1816) ...... 100

*K6nigsberg(i8i2) ..... 828

*Lithuanian 3,000 Bibles . 3,000 Testaments.

42,000 Bibles . 10,000 Testaments.

1812— THE HUNGARIAN BIBLE INSTITUTION (Pressburg) . . .500
Slavonian and Wendish — 5,000 Testaments.

1 In several instances no returns were made of the number of volumes printed or
circulated.

APPENDIX IV 487

Grants from the
British and Foreign
Bible Society.

1812 — THE WURTEMBERG BIBLE SOCIETY (Stuttgart) . . . ^800
German — 15,000 Bibles, 7,000 Testaments.

1812 — THE ZURICH BIBLE SOCIETY 450

German — 3,000 Bibles, 4,000 Testaments.

1813 — CHUR (COIRE) BIBLE SOCIETY 100

Romanese — 3,000 Bibles, 2,000 Testaments.

1813 — SCHAFFHAUSEN BIBLE SOCIETY 105

1813 — ST GALL BIBLE SOCIETY 221

1814— loth August— THE SAXON BIBLE SOCIETY (Dresden) . . 1,200
German — 13,000 Bibles.

Auxiliaries — Leipzig 200

Herrnhut, etc.
1814 — THE THURINGIAN BIBLE SOCIETY (Erfurt) . ... . 350

Auxiliary — Eisenach . . . . . . . 100

1814 — i3thjuly — BERG BIBLE SOCIETY (Elberfeld) . . . 400
Auxiliaries — Cologne, Solingen, etc. ..... 50

1814— 25th July— HANOVER BIBLE SOCIETY 500

German — 10,000 Bibles.
Auxiliaries — Osnaburg
Buckeburg

East Frisia .."..... 50

1814 — i2th October — HAMBURG-ALTONA BIBLE SOCIETY . . 870

German — 10,000 Bibles
1814 — i6th September — LUBECK BIBLE SOCIETY .... 132

Auxiliary — Eutin (January 1817) 50

1814— April— THE ENGLISH BIBLE SOCIETY FOR THE NETHER-
LANDS . . 175

1814— 29th June— THE NETHERLANDS BIBLE SOCIETY (Amster-
dam) 1,120

Auxiliaries — Upwards of 40, including
Rotterdam
The Hague
Utrecht
Haarlem

1814 — 3oth December — LAUSANNE (PAYS DE VAUD) BIBLE SOCIETY 200
1814 — 3ist December — GENEVA BIBLE SOCIETY .... 395
1815— i8th June— BRUNSWICK BIBLE SOCIETY

(,£200 per Dr Steinkopff. See Tours, p. 490)

1815 — SLESWICK-HOLSTEIN BIBLE SOCIETY 581

1815 — BREMEN BIBLE SOCIETY 100

1815— isth March— EICHSFELD (SAXONY) BIBLE SOCIETY . . 300

Auxiliary — Nordhausen 100

1815— STRASBURG BIBLE SOCIETY . . ... 700

488 APPENDIX IV

Grants from the
British and Foreign
Bible Society.

1815— AARGAU (SWITZERLAND) BIBLE SOCIETY .... ,£155

1816— BERNE BIBLE SOCIETY 200

1816 — LA TOUR (WALDENSES) BIBLE SOCIETY . . . . 200

1816 — NEUCHATEL BIBLE SOCIETY 100

l8l6— KONIGSFELD BIBLE INSTITUTION

1816— ist January — NASSAU-HoMBURG BIBLE SOCIETY

1816 — KREUZNACH BIBLE SOCIETY 50

1816— ANHALT BIBLE SOCIETY 100

1816— 8th January— NEU-WIED AND WIED-RUNKEL BIBLE
SOCIETY

1816— LIPPE-DETMOLD BIBLE SOCIETY 50

1816— i8th August— LAUENBURG-RATZEBURG BIBLE SOCIETY 100

l8l6 — MECKLENBURG-SCHWERIN BlBLE SOCIETY . . . 2OO

1816— 4th January— FRANKFORT BIBLE SOCIETY ... 357

1817— January — HESSE-DARMSTADT BIBLE SOCIETY . . . 200

Auxiliaries — Worms 50

Michelstadt in Odenwald . 50

1817— WALDECK AND PYRMONT BIBLE SOCIETY ... 150

TOTALS . 119,000 Bibles ; 54,000 Testaments . ,£21,025

Grants for the poor, refugees, etc. . . . i>3i7

„ Roman Catholics. . . . 3>io8

„ France 2,073

EXPENDITURE IN CENTRAL EUROPE ^27,523

THE BIBLE SOCIETIES OF NORTHERN EUROPE.

1814 — 22nd May — THE DANISH BIBLE SOCIETY . . . ^1042

To Scriptures distributed in Denmark by the British

and Foreign Bible Society 100

1808 — 29th February — THE SWEDISH EVANGELICAL SOCIETY

(Stockholm) 2,500

(Of this .£350 in aid of Lapp, ^1,200 in aid of Swedish Scriptures.)

1814 — 6th July — THE SWEDISH BIBLE SOCIETY .... 560

Auxiliaries — Westeras ....... 800

Gothenburg t 300

Wisby in Gothland 100

APPENDIX IV 489

Grants from the
British and Foreign
Bible Society.

Auxiliaries — Upsala .......

Lund (1815) ...... 3°°

Wexio (1816) ...... 100

Hernosand (1816) ..... 200

Skara ....... 200

Carlstad ....... 150

Askerstrom ...... 100

Grants for prisoners of war, refugees, and the

poor in Sweden and Lapland . . . 616

',£6,226

Editions printed up to January 1816 — Bibles 31,500 ;
Testaments 60,600 ; Psalters 3,000.

o

1812 — THE FINNISH BIBLE SOCIETY (Abo) ..... i,95°
Finn — 5,000 Bibles, 5,000 Testaments.

1815 — loth July — THE ICELANDIC BIBLE SOCIETY . . . 300

To aid printing of 5,000 Bibles and 8,000 Testaments in
Icelandic prior to formation of Icelandic Bible
Society ..... . . . . . i>75°

^2,050

1816 — 28th December — THE NORWEGIAN BIBLE SOCIETY . . 522

TOTAL Grants to Northern Europe . . . ^11,890

Editions printed, 41,500 Bibles ; ^3,600 Testaments ;
3,000 Psalters.

1812— Continental Tour by the Rev. C. Steinkopff . . . 2,712

1815 — Do. do. ... 4,000

,£6,712

490 APPENDIX IV

THE BIBLE SOCIETIES IN EASTERN EUROPE

Grants from the
British and Foreign
Bible Society.

1807— THE REVEL BIBLE SOCIETY ...... ^270

1811— THE DORPAT (LIVONIA) BIBLE SOCIETY .... 1,000

(For printing Esthon and Lett Scriptures.)

1812 —THE RIGA BIBLE SOCIETY ...... 313

(For printing German Scriptures.)

1813 — THE RUSSIAN (ST PETERSBURG) BIBLE SOCIETY . . 8,705

Auxiliaries — Moscow (i6th July 1813) . . . 500

Dorpat (1813) ...... 328

Courland (Mittau, 1813) .... 499

Riga (1813)

Revel (1813)

Theodosia (Kaffa) ..... 500

(Esel, Isle of ...... 257

Pernau and Fellin (Livonia) . . . 200

And Yaroslav, Arensburg, Voronez, Kamentz-
Podolsk, Tula, Simpheropol, Odessa, Kronstadt,
Wilna, Mohilev, Witepsk, Grodno, Minsk, Saratov,
Astrakhan, Kostroma, Pscow.

Grants to Karass for Tartar Testament . . 650

„ Sarepta for Kalmuk ... 60

„ the poor of the German Colonies

on the Volga .... 185

„ prisoners of war, and poor British

subjects in Russia . . . 1,209

£14,676

EDITIONS PRINTED IN SIXTEEN LANGUAGES BY THE RUSSIAN
BIBLE SOCIETY

Kalmuk .

3,000 Gospels

Armenian.

5,000 Bibles

8,000 Testaments.

Finn

5,000 „

. 2,000 „

German .

5,000 „

. 5,000 „

Polish

• 5,°°° >,

Carry forward 15,000 Bibles 20,000 Testaments ; 3,000 Portions

APPENDIX IV

491

Brought forward 1 5,000 Bibles ;
French . . . 5,000 ,.
Sclavonian . . 30,000 „
Dorpatian-Esthonian
Revel-Esthonian ....

Lett

Persian

Georgian

Samogitian

Modern Greek . 3,000 „
Moldavian . . 5,000 „

Tartar

Tartar

Tartar

20,000 Testaments, 3,000 Portions

1,000 „

15,000 „

5,000 „

10,000 „

15,000 „

5,000 „

2,000 „

5,000

5,000 „

5,000 „

2,000 „

. 2,000 Gospels
. 2,000 Psalms

58,000 Bibles . 90,000 Testaments 7,000 Portions

1816 — 2ist October — THE POLISH (WARSAW) BIBLE SOCIETY £635

Auxiliaries — Cracow 500

Posen . loo

Distributed by Mr Pinkerton

TOTAL Grants to Eastern Europe

£1,235
168

£1,403
• £16,079

SUMMARY

Central Europe
Northern Europe .
Tours on the Continent .
Eastern Europe

Bibles.

Testaments.

Portions

Grants.

II9,OOO

54,000

£27,523

41,500

73,600

3000

11,890

6,712

58,000

OX>,OOO

7OOO

16,079

2l8,500

217,600

IO,OOO

£62,204

INDEX

AARGAU BIBLE SOCIETY, 437, 489

Abdullah, conversion and martyrdom,
289-90

Aberdeen Female Servants' Society, 55;;

Abolition of Slavery, see Slavery

Abyssinia, Ethiopic Scriptures, 102, 140;
the " India" of Frumentius, 296

Acworth, Mr William, home agent, 353

Africa, South, appeals for Scriptures for
the Hottentots, 129, 131 ; .Moravian
Mission, 129; Scriptures for colonists,
131 ; Bible and School Commission,
132 ; the Society's Fund for the
emancipated slaves, 387
— West, the Society's efforts, 133

Aitken, Mr Robert, prepares first Ameri-
can edition of the English Bible, 239

Albrecht, Rev. C. , Namaqua translator,
132

Alers, Mr William, takes part in forming
the Society, 9, 1 1 ; member of the
first Committee, 16, 45

Alexander I., Czar, favours work in Fin-
land, 175 ; religious experiences, 194,
207 ; sanctions St Petersburg Bible
Society, 195 ; his meeting with Frede-
rick William III. of Prussia, 197 ;
receives deputation in London, 199 ;
establishes Polish Bible Society, 204,
228 ; Congress of Vienna, 206 ; his
meeting with Madame de Krudener,
207 ; his interest in the Russian Bible
Society, 223, 404, 431 ; Modern Russ
version, 223, 409, 413 ; his treatment
of a religious offender, 415 ; his doubts
and fears, 415-16 ; his death, 418

Ali Bey, Turkish version, 203, 388

Altona, Bible Committee formed, 189 ;
see Hamburg- Altona B.S.

Amboyna, Christian population, 288 ;
Auxiliary, 288, 291, 294, 433

America, see Canada, New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, U.S.A.,
South America, Berbice, Demerara

American Bible Society, established, 249;
Dr Hobart's opposition, 250

Anhalt Bible Society, 489

Antigua, 255 - 56 ; Auxiliary formed,
257

Apocrypha Controversy, 333-36; aproblem
of the foreign Churches, 137, 334, 336,
402, 433 ; the Committee's early effort
to discontinue the Apocrypha, 335 ;
attempted compromises, 336-39; re-
monstrance from Scotland, 337 ; the
Cambridge protest, 338 ; Special Com-
mittee, 339 ; the President summarises
the situation, 339-41 ; the Committee's
recommendations, 341 ; new regula-
tions adopted, 341-42 ; reception of the
decision, 344 ; Scottish secession, 344-
45 ; the new rules and foreign grants,
434-35> 453 5 the principal Continental
Societies decline to adopt them, 433-38,
453-55 ;. deputations sent, 436, 453,
458; friendly relations maintained,
437-38, 453-5.8

Appert, M., his work in France, 397,
399

Arabic version, 103, 133, 377 ; Sabat's
translation, 275, 283, 289 ; the Bishop
of Durham's edition, 2837*

Aretcheof, Count, 416

Armenian Church, the Patriarch's ap-
proval, 140; dearth of Scriptures, 157;
churches in India, 287

(Modern) version, Dr Zohrab's New

Testament, 396

Armour, Mr, assists in Sinhalese transla-
tion, 286

Assamese version, undertaken at Seram-
pore, 287

Associations, beginnings of the move-
ment, 53-55 ; Mr Phillips draws up
rules, 54 ; work of Southwark Auxili-
ary and its Associations, 56 ; their
rapid increase, 56 ; criticisms, 57 ;
reply of Dr Chalmers, 57

Astrakhan, Scottish Mission, 180, 226,
391 ; depot, 401

Athos, Mount, Georgian version in
monastery at, 410

493

494

INDEX

Austria, dearth of Scriptures, 23 ; Pro-
testant Consistory at Vienna, 211 ;
proposed Bible Society, 227 ; Papal
opposition, 229, 423 ; Imperial pro-
hibition, 230 ; efforts maintained, 423,
429

Auxiliaries, spontaneous origin, 47 ; rules
by Messrs Phillips and Dudley, 49 ;
financial effect, 49 - 5 1 ; distributive
operations, 51-53 ; patronage secured
by them, 65 ; list of Auxiliaries in Eng-
land and Wales (1806-17), 471-82;
Auxiliaries in Scotland, 94-97, 482-84;
in Ireland, IH-I2; in British North
America, 251-52 ; Jamaica, People of
Colour, 257

Ayer, Ananda, Telugu version, 283

BABINGTON, MR THOMAS, member of

the first Committee, 16 ; the Clapham

circle, 31 ; a Vice-President, 64
Baghdad, dearth of Scriptures, 140
Bahamas, 255
Ban de la Roche, Pastor Oberlin's

labours, 158-62
Baptist Missionary Society, founded, 269;

the Serampore missionaries {q.v. ), 259,

267, 269
Barbary States, abolition of Christian

slavery, 383
Barker, Mr John, aids the work at

Aleppo, 140
Barrington, Hon. and Rev. Shute,

(Bishop of Durham), Vice-President,

20, 63 ; publishes Arabic Bible, 2837* ;

his death, 381
Basel, the Roumansch Scriptures, 144,

146

Bible Society, see German Bible

Society

Christian Society, see German Re-
ligious Society

Missionary Society, mission at

Shusha, 442
Basque version, issue of New Testament,

397 ; the Queen of Navarre's version,

398
Batavia, its capture by the English, 283,

288 ; Java (g.v. ) Auxiliary formed,

289 ; effects of reading the Scriptures,

300-1

Bathurst, Bishop, Vice-President, 64, 73
Bavaria, dearth of Scriptures, 23 ; the

Society supplies, 24 ; Bible work

arrested by Holy See, 423 ; circulation

of Scriptures goes on, 423, 429
Beachcroft, Rev. R. P., Hon. Life

Governor, 384
Beck, John, Eskimo translator, 234

Bedell, Bishop, his Erse version, 116-18;
the Society's edition, 371

Bengal, Corresponding Committee of, see
Calcutta

Bengali version, 274, 282

Bentley, Professor James, Hon. Life
Governor, 384

Benwell, Mr Joseph, member of the first
Committee, 16

Berbice, 255 ; Auxiliary formed, 257

Berg Bible Society, 202-3, 43 *> 4^8

Bergen, Bible work at, 452, 457, 459

Berlin Bible Society, 24, 148, 200 ; first
efforts hindered by French invasion,
149-154; Bohemian and Polish Scrip-
tures, 152, 1 86, 284, 487 ; becomes
Prussian Bible Society (q.v.), 202, 203

Bernadotte, Marshal, Crown Prince of
Sweden, 171 ; patron of Swedish Bible
Society, 201, 448 ; Norwegian Bible
Society, 217 ; Charles XIV. of Sweden,
448 ; receives the Society's representa-
tive, 451

Bernard, Mr Thomas, member of the
first Committee, 16

Berne Bible Society, formed, 211, 488;
Apocrypha difficulty, 435

Bexley, Lord, see Vansittart

Bible, The, its missionary functions, 4,
287, 290, 377, 414 ; principle of the
Waldensian Church, 17

Society, The, see Naval and

Military Bible Society

The British and Foreign, see British

and Foreign Bible Society

Birkbeck, Mr Wilson, member of the
first Committee, 1 6

Birmingham Auxiliary, formation, 48,
65 ; contributions, 467

Blackheath Auxiliary, early work, 55 ;
Princess of Wales patroness, 478

Blumhardt, Rev. Mr, Secretary of
German Religious Society, 143, 442 ;
the Apocrypha difficulty, 437

Boase, Mr Henry, member of the first
Committee, 16

Bobowsky (Bobovius), Albertus, see Ali Bey

Bogue, Dr, 109, 132, 137

Bohemia, dearth of Scriptures, 24, 186 ;
issues of the Berlin Bible Society, 149,
153-54 ; work arrested by Papal influ-
ence, 423, 429 ; circulation of Scrip-
tures from Herrnhut, 429, 442

Bombay, Auxiliary formed, 286 ; depot
and library, 292 ; grants and remit-
tances, 293, 294

Borrow, George, picture of England in
1804-5, 2^ 5 description of Joseph John
Gurney, 76-78 ; enters the Society's
employment, 383

INDEX

495

Boston Bible Society, see Massachusetts

Botany Bay, 122

Boudinot, Hon. Elias, president of
American Bible Society, 249

Boyle, Hon. Robert, publishes Irish New
Testament, 116, 118; Tartar-Turkish
version, i8o«

Brackenbury, Mr W., home agent, 353

Brahminism, converts baptized at Seram-
pore, 287

Brandram, Rev. Andrew, appointed
Secretary, 333 ; attitude in Apocrypha
controversy, 341

Bremen Bible Society, 202, 489

Breton version, 397

Brett, Samuel, Messianic hopes of the
Jews, 314

Bristol Auxiliary, early work, 51

British and Foreign Bible Society, con-
nection with the Evangelical revival,
1-3; singleness of purpose, 3; earlier
efforts for distribution of the Scrip-
tures, 3; divine guidance in its incep-
tion, 4 ; and its progress, 82 ; its
immediate origin, 5-7 ; deliberations
of R.T.S. Committee, 9-11 ; co-opera-
tion of Rev. J. Hughes, 10 ; the Society
founded, 11-13; its catholicity, 12-16;
the Constitution of the Society, 10, 17-
20, 342 ; its expenditure and distri-
bution at the close of the century, 14 ;
constitution of the Committee — the
first Committee, 15-16; the first Sec-
retaries, 15, 42-46, 74, 320, 329, 333,
364, 381 ; their gratuitous services, 20,
333 5 " without note or comment," 17,
25, 188, 227, 334, 432 ; the first pro-
spectus, 21 ; operations begun, 22 ;
first new foreign version, 25, 251 ; the
Library founded, 26 ; rise of Auxili-
aries (^.7>.),47; their financial effect,
49-51 ; rise of Associations {q.v. ), 53-
56 ; loan Bibles and Testaments, 54« ;
the first Female Bible Society, 59 ;
list of Vice- Presidents (1805-17), 63 ;
attacks on the Society and its work, I
57, 69, 71, 266, 267, 303-309, 332,
36l> 379, 394, 4*5, 439; revenue up
to 1816-17, 82 ; home needs, 100, 119;
the distressed, 1 19-23 ; Bible House
at 10 Earl Street, 103, 485 ; versions
printed to 1816-17, IO3 > entering on
its world-wide mission, 128-142 ; de-
putation to the Czar, 199 ; ditto to the
King of Prussia, 200 ; Iceland's poeti-
cal tribute, 213-216; list of speakers
at anniversary meetings (1804-17),
309 -ii; Honorary Life Governors,
311, 312; progress of first thirteen
years, 317-18; formation of district

agencies, 320, 352-53, 363; Monthly
Extracts, 325 ; Owen's History, 332 ;
the Apocrypha controversy (q.v.}, 333-
346; Tests controversy (g.v.), 354-
361 ; first meeting in Exeter Hall,
356 ; efforts during cholera visitation
(1831-32), 362; death of Lord Teign-
mouth, first President, 365 ; list of
Vice-Presidents (1820-34), 375; Pope
Leo's Encyclical, 379 ; Scriptures for
the emancipated slaves, 386, 387 ;
Turkish New Testament difficulty,
390-92 ; scientific appreciation of the
Society's work, 392 ; the case of Van
Ess, 438 - 41 ; see also Colportage,
Criminals, Poor, Roman Catholics,
Schools, Seamen, etc.

Brooke, Rev. Thomas, home agent, 363

Brown, Rev. David, Calcutta, 259, 264,
27 1 ; policy of Indian Governors, 260 ;
Provost of Fort William College, 271 ;
befriends Claudius Buchanan, 272 ;
urges claims of the Hindus, 277 ;
Secretary of Calcutta Auxiliary, 280 ;
his death, 285.

Browne, Rev. George, appointed Secre-
tary, 365

Brownrigg, Lieut. -Gen., Hon. Life
Governor, 384

Brunnmark, Dr, tours in Sweden, 201,
3"

Brunswick Bible Society formed, 208,
488 ; marriage custom, 425

Brunton, Henry, Tartar-Turkish trans-
lation, 179

Brussels (British) Bible Society founded,

43i

Buchanan, Dr Claudius, Syriac New
Testament, 102, 295 ; work in India,
165, 259, 260; Fort William College,
271; sketch of, 272; visits Syrian
Churches of S. India, 275, 279, 295 ;
return to England, 276, 295 ; the In-
quisition at Goa, 28o« ; his death,
296

Buenos Ayres, first Spanish New Testa-
ments, 232 ; effect of Spanish occupa-
tion, 232 ; the Inquisition abolished,
232

Bullom, Gospel in, 134.

Bunnell, Mr Joseph, member of the
first Committee, 16

Burgess, Bishop, Vice-President, 20, 63,
376 .

Lieut. -Col., Hon. Life Governor,

312

Burghardt, Rev. C. F., Eskimo (Labrador)
translation, 253-54

Burials, The, 183, 224, 405

Burmese version, 282

496

INDEX

Burn, Rev. Edward, Hon. Life Gover-
nor, 312

Butterworth, Mr J., member of the first
Committee, 16

Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, see Fowell
Buxton

Byron, Lord (Navigator), incident at
Anniversary meeting, 379-80

CALCUTTA, formation of Corresponding
Committee, 25, 259, 260, 267, 273,
276 ; its first efforts, 277, 289 ; the
first Christian Church, 262 ; Biblical
dep6t and library, 278 ; Auxiliary
founded, 280 ; its early work, 280,
286, 291, 294 ; needs of Armenians in
India, 287 ; Malay Scriptures, 288,
289 ; Bishopric instituted, 293 ; sum-
mary of grants and remittances (1805-
1817), 293

Caledon Auxiliary, formed, 132

Calliergi (Callipoli), Maximus, Modern
Greek version, 137

Callisen, Dean, 447

Calthorpe, Lord, Vice- President, 375

Camberwell Auxiliary, 80, 478

Cambridge Auxiliary, 71, 72, 306

Protest, in Apocrypha controversy,

338

Campbell, General Sir Alexander, 129

Rev. J. , sets Messrs Henderson and

Paterson on their life-work, 166

Canada, development of, 235 ; Mohawk
Gospel, 25, 251 ; Gaelic Scriptures for
colonists, 92 ; the Society's efforts,
251, 252

Canary Islands, 135

Canstein Bible Institution, 147 ; Mr
Steinkopff s visit, 185

Canton de Vaud, Bible Society founded
at Lausanne (q.v.), 204 ; Bibles at
marriages — disused law, 205

Cape Town, see South Africa

Carey, William, Baptist Missionary at
Serampore, 2, 259, 260 ; sketch of,
267, 275, 287?* ; at Fort William
College, 271 ; abolition of Saugor
sacrifices, 285« ; receives Brahmin
converts, 287

Carlscrona, Swedish Auxiliary at, 217,
448, 456

Carlstad, Swedish Auxiliary at, 217, 448,
490

Carshun version, issued at Paris, 397

Castlereagh, Lord, 81

Cecil, Rev. Richard, 272

Celebes, Chinese Scriptures for, 301

Ceylon, Colombo Auxiliary formed, 285 ;
the Society's earlier efforts, 286 ; Gov-
ernment prints Sinhalese Scriptures,

286 ; efforts of Calcutta Auxiliary,
286, 291 ; grants and remittances up
to 1816-17, 293 > Sinhalese converts
in England, 377

Chalmers, Rev. Dr, defence of Bible As-
sociations, 57

Channel Islands, Scriptures for, loo, 105
Charles XIII., of Sweden, 448

— XIV., of Sweden, see Bernadotte
- of Hesse, Landgrave, supports
work in Sleswick-Holstein, 447

Rev. Thomas, sketch of, 5-7 ;

friendship with John Newton, 6 ;
relations with the Church of England,
6 ; the story of Mary Jones, 6, 465-
70 ; lack of Scriptures in Wales, 6,
468; applies to S.P.C. K. , 7; brings
question before R.T.S., 9; Welsh
enthusiasm for the Society, 22 ; his
revision of the Welsh version, 25 ; visit
to Ireland, 109; his death, 315
Chater, Mr, Sinhalese translator, 286
Chester Auxiliary, 79
China, traces of Nestorian Christianity,
298 ; tablet of Singanfu, 298 ; copy of
Syriac version, 298 ; closed to mission
work, 299 ; Morrison begins Chinese
version, 299, 300 ; his first convert,
301

Chinese versions, Chinese MS. in British
Museum, 24, 299 ; the Society's first
thoughts of a version, 25 ; progress of
version at Serampore, 274, 282, 287,
292, 378 ; Morrison's work, 299, 300,
301 ; assisted by Milne, 300, 378 ;
issue of New Testament, 300 ; com-
pletion of Old Testament, 378

Christiania, Dr Paterson establishes
agency, 459 ; its early efforts, 460

Chufat Kale, Tartar version found, 226

Chur (Coire) Bible Society, 186, 488

C.M.S., its origin, 3, 264; Mission in
Sierra Leone, 134

Church of England, attitude towards its
Evangelical clergy, 13
— of Rome, see Rome

Churwelshe version, issue of Old Testa-
ment, 146

Clapham Evangelicals, sketches of, 30-42

Clarke, Rev. Dr Adam, Hon. Life
Governor, 312, 377 ; his death, 362

Mr, first English missionary to

India, 264

Clarkson, Thomas, I, 67

Claus, Mr, Agent at Frankfort, 437, 438

Close, Dean, 67

Clough, Mr, Sinhalese translator, 286

Coape-Sherbrooke, Sir John, 252

Cock, Mr Horatio, 69

Coire Bible Society, see Chur

INDEX

497

Colchester, Ladies' Association, 59 ;
formation of Auxiliary — Bishop Ran-
dolph's opposition, 67-68, 304
Cologne Auxiliary, 431, 488
Colombo Auxiliary, see Ceylon
Colportage, adopted by Prof. Kieffer,
399 ; successful efforts of Messrs
Courtois, 400, 401, 403 ; other efforts
in France, 400

Committee, The Society's — its constitu-
tion, 15 ; the first Committee, 16 ;
its labours, 20
Confirmation, gift of Scriptures at —

ancient Brunswick statute, 425
Connecticut Bible Society, 242 ; early

efforts, 244, 246, 248
Continental Bible Society, the first, 23
Convicts, Scriptures for, see Criminals
Copenhagen, Paterson and Henderson
detained at, 165 ; siege, 167 ; preserva-
tion of Scriptures, 168 ; Icelandic
edition, 173, 200 ; Danish Bible
Society (q.v. ), 200
Cork Bible Society, 111-13
Cornwall Auxiliary, 67, 472
Corrie, Daniel, Calcutta, 259, 276
"Country Clergyman," attacks on the

Society, 303-4

Courland, Russian Auxiliary, 196, 225, 491
Courtois, Messrs, of Toulouse, 400-3
Cowie, Mr Robert, takes part in first
meeting, II ; the first Committee, 16
Cox, Lieut., work at Gravesend, 327
Cracow, Pinkerton's visit, 227 ; Polish

Auxiliary, 492
Cradock, Sir John, 132
Crawford, Mr Charles, member of the

first Committee, 16
Creole version, 445
Criminals, Scriptures for, 122, 373, 396,

397, 424 ; gratitude of convicts, 123
Cunningham, Rev. Francis, visits Pastor
Oberlin, 331 ; introduces George
Borrow, 383 ; Hon. Life Governor,

384, 397

Rev. John, at Earlham, 75 ; replies

to Dr Maltby, 308 ; Hon. Life Gover-
nor, 312

Cyril, CEcumenical Patriarch, disapproval
of Modern Greek version, 137

Sclavonic translator, 223

Czar, see Alexander I., Nicholas
Czartorisky, Prince, supports the cause
in Poland, 228

DALE, DAVID, first supporter in Scot-
land, 22, 84, 95« ; sketch of, 85, 86,
96;*, 161

Daly, Rev. Robert, urges need of Erse
Scriptures, 370

Daniel, Rev. William, early Erse trans-
lator, 370

Danish Bible Society, 200, 216, 219, 232,
445> 489 ; declines Apocrypha regula-
tions, 435, 453 ; Dr Pinkerton's visit,
453 ; its later progress, 448, 454,
460

East Indies, 259, 26in, 269

Evangelical Society, issues Scrip-
tures for Iceland, 166, 185, 200

Missions, in Tranquebar and Tan-

jore, 26i«, 275, 277

West Indies, Creole Scriptures for,

445

Dant/ic Auxiliary, 204 ; Polish version,
204

Darlington Auxiliary, 55

Dartmoor Prison, 124 ; Scriptures for
American prisoners of war, 126

Dealtry, Rev. William, replies to Dr
Wordsworth, 305 ; Hon. Life Gover-
nor, 312 ; his part in Tests controversy,

357, 359

Decazes, Due, official support for work
in France, 394

Demerara, 255

Denmark, the Society issues Danish
Scriptures, 102, 103 ; Messrs Paterson
and Henderson in, 165, 173, 200, 216,
445 ; work of Danish Evangelical
Society (q.v.), 166; siege of Copen-
hagen, 167 ; Scriptures for Danish
Lapland, 172 ; Danish Bible Society
(q.v.), zoo ; royal interest in its work,
445 ; Apocrypha difficulty, 435, 453 ;
visit of Dr Pinkerton, 453 ; conciliatory
attitude of Sleswick - Holstein Bible
Society (q.v.), 454

Derby Auxiliary, 355

Derry Bible Society, 112, 114

De Sacy, see Sacy

Desgranges, Rev. Augustus, Telugu
version, 283

Diez, Baron von, revises' Turkish version,
203, 389

Diodati, Italian version, 117, 138

Dionysius, Mar, superintends Malayalam
version, 279

Dolben, Sir William, 67

Dominica, 255

Dorpat, Bible Society founded, 179;
revived, 422 ; Russian Auxiliary at,
196, 225 ; efforts of Prof. Sartorius,
421

Dositheos, Archbishop, the needs of
Georgia, 222

Douai version, issued by R.C. Church
in N. Ireland, 373

Dresden, Saxon Bible Society (q.v.)
founded, 204

VOL. I.

2 I

498

INDEX

Dublin Association for discountenancing
Vice and promoting the Knowledge and
Practice of the Christian Religion, 2 1 ;
its co-operation, 109

Bible Society, see Hibernian Bible

Society

Dudley, C. S., draws up rules for Auxili-
aries, 49 ; and scheme and rules for
Female Societies, 59-61 ; results of
his labours, 61, 320, 347 ; Hon. Life
Governor, 312; first home agent, 351,

352, 353

Dutch East India Company, undertakes
Malay version, 288

East Indies, Holland's Christian

policy, 288 ; Netherlands Bible
Society's efforts, 432

Guiana, see Surinam

EARL STREET, No. 10, first Bible
House, 103, 485

East India Company, its hostility to
Missions, 164, 259, 260, 264-267 ;
change of policy, 165, 266, 293 ;
tribute to Schwarz, 265 ; Mr Twining's
representations, 266 ; abolition of
its exclusive powers, 293 ; Morrison
engaged as Chinese translator, 299

Lothian, see Lothian

Edinburgh, early support from Presbytery
of, 84 ; Edinburgh Bible Society (g.v. ),
95 ; new British Auxiliary formed, 346,
348 ; cholera visitation, 362

Bible Society, undertakes dis-
tribution of Gaelic Scriptures, 93 ;
its constitution, 95, 96 ; relations with
parent Society, 97, 102 ; early work
and progress, 98, 347, 482 ; remon-
strances on Apocrypha question, 337 ;
secession, 339 ; action of the supporters
oftheB.F.B.S., 346, 348

Egede, Hans and Paul, their labours in

Greenland, 233
Eichsfeld Bible Society, 489
Eimeo, Tahitian Gospel printed at

Mission Press, 302
Elberfeld Bible Society, see Berg Bible

Society

Eliot, John, Indian version, 240/7
Elliot, Catherine, Juvenile B.S., 557?
Ellis, Rev. William, issues Tahitian

Gospel, 302 ; Christianity in Tahiti.

302

Emancipation of the Slave. See Slavery
Emigrants, 92, 373 ; a Sabbath service

on an emigrant ship, 374
England, state of the country (1800-5)

and threats of French invasion, 7, 10,

27-29; dearth of Scriptures, 22, 101,

352 ; early auxiliaries, 65-83, 471-482 ;

state of criminal law (1800-20), 120;
condition of prisons, 121 ; Napoleon's
Berlin Decree, 150; his and - British
policy, 167, 170, 177, 198, 246; war
with Denmark, 167 ; war with Sweden,
173, 174; Russian policy, 177; war
with U.S.A., 246; condition of the
people (1815-30) and influence of the
Society's w-ork, 320 - 23 ; the first
home agents and district agencies,
320, 352-53, 363 ; the royal family and
the Bible cause, 332 ; cholera visita-
tion (1831-32), 362; death of George
III., 377; Reform Bill riots, 382;
abolition of slavery, 385, 386

England, Church of, see Church of
England

English Bible, adoption of Authorised
Version, 17 ; first edition published in
America, 239

Erfurt Bible Society, see Thuringian Bible
Society

Erlangen Auxiliary, Schelling supports,
432

Erse version, 101, 102, 115 ; the Society's
issues, 102, 103, 371 ; history of the
translation, 116-18

Eskimo version, issue of New Testament
portions, 102, 103, 232, 233, 253, 254 ;
work of Hans and Paul Egede and
John Beck in Greenland, 233 - 34 ;
Rev. B. Kohlmeister and Rev. C. F.
Burghardt in Labrador, 253-54; Bishop
Fabricius, 446 ; Rev. Mr Wolff, 446 ;
Pastor Kragh, 446 ; Danish Bible
Society issues Old Testament Scrip-
tures, 446, 460

Ess, Rev. Leander Van, German New
Testament, 188, 443 ; engaged by the
Society, 439 ; circulation of his version,
211, 423, 429, 433, 438; his resigna-
tion, 438, 440 : Southey's attack, 439 ;
the Society's confidence, 440

Esthonia, dearth of Scriptures, 178;
condition of the people, 178, 225 ;
Auxiliary at Revel (q.v.), 196 ; end of
serfdom, 225 ; Professor Sartorius, 421

Ethiopic Psalter, 102-3, 140 ; progress
of Gospels, 1 02

Europe, founding of the Society
welcomed on the Continent, 23 ;
Napoleonic troubles, 144, 198, 209 ;
progress of Bible work (1805-17), 211,
218, 230, 492 ; appreciation of Society's
work, 392; Apocrypha difficulty, 137,
334, 335, 402, 433, 434, 435 5 seces-
sion, 437-38, 453

Central, progress of work (1805-17),

211, 2 1 8, 231, 487-89; prohibitions
of the Holy See, 229, 423 ; private

INDEX

499

Europe (continued) —

efforts, 423, 424 ; Tercentenary of the
Reformation, 424 ; progress of work
(1817-34), 423-44; Apocrypha diffi-
culty, 334, 434 ; secession of the
principal Societies, 437-38 ; Frankfort
Agency established, 437 - 41 ; circu-
lation of New Testament of Van
Ess, 439. See also Austria, France,
Germany, Prussia, Switzerland, etc.

Europe, Eastern, progress of work (1805-
17), 230, 231, 491, 492. See also
Russia, Russian Bible Society

Northern, progress of work (1805-

17), 211, 219, 231, 489, 490; later
efforts (1817-34), 445, 448, 451, 454,
460 ; the Apocrypha difficulty, 335,
435, 453; Dr Henderson's tour, 451 ;
Dr Pinkerton, 453 ; Hon. Charles
Shore, 457 ; Dr Paterson establishes
agencies, 458-460. See also Denmark,
Finland, Iceland, Lapland, Norway,
Sweden

Evangelical Revival, The, and the origin
of the Society, 1-3; influence of the
French Revolution, 2

Evangelicals, The Clapham. See Clap-
ham Evangelicals

Evans, Rev. Dr, 67

Exeter Hall, first anniversary meeting,

356-359

Exmouth, Admiral Viscount, Vice-
President, 375 ; his death, 383

FABRICIUS, BISHOP, conciliatory view of
Apocrypha question, 437 ; work at
Herrnhut, 442 ; labours in Greenland,
446

Faroe Islands, 232, 445

Fellin Auxiliary. See Pernau

Female Bible Societies. See Ladies'
Bible Societies

Fenn, Mr John, member of the first
Committee, 16

Finland, Sweden loses, 170; visit of
Paterson and Henderson, 172 ; dearth
of Scriptures, 174; the Rev. J.
Paterson's commission, 174; the Czar's
approval, 175 ; Bible Society founded
at Abo, 175 ; corn tithes devoted to
printing Scriptures, 175 ; the people,
175 ; the Society's later efforts, 219,
419, 422 ; Rev. J. Knill opens depots,
421 ; the work entrusted to Stockholm
agency, 458, 460

Fisher, Bishop, Vice-President, 63, 64

Fitrut, Mirza, Hindustani translation,
275, 282, 377

Fitzralph, Bishop, early Irish translator,
116

Flintshire, dearth of Scriptures, 82

Foot, Rev. Lundy, his part in the Tests
controversy, 358

Fowell Buxton, 75, I22w ; burial of
Wilberforce, 386 ; emancipation of the
slaves, 387

France, early Bible Society, 3 ; dearth
of Scriptures, 8, 44 ; first issues of
Scriptures for, 102, 103 ; Basel
Society's efforts, 144 ; Bible Com-
mittee formed at Paris, 185 ; Roman
Catholics welcome Scriptures, 145 ;
co-operation of Consistories at Paris,
206; the Society's efforts (1805-17),
218 ; the goodwill of the Government,
332 ; burial of Hon. Henry Dundas
Shore at Lourmarin, 343 ; progress of
work (1817-34), 392-403; Scriptures
issued, 393 ; Protestant Bible Society
founded (q-v.), 393 ; Abbe de
Lamennais' attack on the Biblical
movement, 394 ; Paris Agency estab-
lished, 395 ; efforts of M. Appert, 397,
399 ; Basque version, 397 ; R.C.
Bishop destroys Gospels, 398 ; Revolu-
tion of 1830, 399 ; adoption of col-
portage, 399, 400 ; efforts of Messrs
Courtois, 400, 401, 403 ; French and
Foreign Bible Society formed, 402

Franke, Rev. Professor, the Canstein
Bible Institution, 148

Frankfort, Bible Society formed, 189,
210, 431, 432, 434, 489 ; a shepherd
asks for the Bible, 428 ; Apocrypha
difficulty, 435, 437 ; British Agency
established, 437, 438; its early efforts,

441,443
Frederick IV. of Denmark, colonial

policy in East Indies, 261
Vl. of Denmark, his interest in

Danish Bible Society, 445
William III. of Prussia, sanctions

Berlin Bible Society, 148, 149 ;

receives Society's deputation, 200
Freemasons' Hall, Anniversary meetings,

310, 311
French and Foreign Bible Society,

formed, 402

Bible Society, an early, 3

Revolution, and Evangelical revival

in England, 2 ; no Bible at Lyons, 44
versions, charge of Socinianism,

332 ; Martin's Bible issued at Montau-
ban, 393 ; Ostervald's New Testa-
ment, 393 ; breach of Society's regula-
tion, 432

Freyberg, pious practice of silver-miners,
205

Fridag, Mr Sebastian, member of the
first Committee, 16

500

INDEX

Frumentius, his "India," 296

Fry, Elizabeth, at Earlham, 75 ; condition

of prisons, 121, I22n
Fiinen, early Bible work at, see Danish

Evangelical Society ; Auxiliary formed,

2 1 6, 445

GABRIEL, Moldavian Exarch, supervises

Wallachian Scriptures, 227
Gaelic version, Rev. J. Stuart's work,

90 ; translation of Old Testament, 91 ;

the Society's early issues, 91, 93, 101,

103
Galitzin, Prince, negotiations to form

Russian Bible Society, 191, 194 ;

president of St Petersburg Bible

Society, 195, 410, 412, 413 ; new

versions of Scriptures, 407 ; resignation

of office, 416
Gambia River, missionary's adventure,

133

Gambier, Admiral, Vice-President, 20,
63, 382 ; the Clapham circle, 32 ;
siege of Copenhagen, 167 ; meets
French opponent on Society's platform,
378

Geneva Bible Society, 204, 488 ; Owen s
visit, 426 ; depot established, 426 ;
Apocrypha difficulty, 436

Evangelical Society, colportage in

France, 400

George III., his death, 377

IV. , accepts set of versions, 380

Georgia (U.S.A.) Bible Society, 243,

248

Georgian version, 222, 410, 413 ; matrices
of type escape burning at Moscow, 223;
reconstruction of Bible Society, 413
German Bible Society — first Continental
Auxiliary — founded at Nuremberg, 23;
transferred to Basel, 143 ; its early
efforts, 144, 185, 189, 210, 487 ; forms
French Bible Committee, 185 ; the
Waldenses, 186 ; visit of Messrs
Pinkerton and Owen, 425 ; Apocrypha
question, 435, 437
Religious Society, 23, 43, 143

versions, New Testament of

Wittman, 147, 430 ; New Testament
of Van Ess, 188, 211, 423, 433, 438;
New Testament of Gosner, 211, 423,
428, 429

Germany, the new Society welcomed, 23;
first issues of German Scriptures, 102,
103 ; German Bible Society (g.v.),
143 ; leaders of Pietism, 162 ; Dr
Steinkopffs visits, 188, 210, 428;
Roman Catholic Bible Society at
Ratisbon (<?.v.), 188 ; new societies

formed, 189, 202, 488, 489 ; Dr

Schwabe's tour, 205 ; the Freyberg

silver-miners, 205 ; celebration of Re-
formation Tercentenary, 424 ; Dr

Pinkerton's visit, 424
Gibraltar, 135
Gisborne, Thomas, reply to charges against

the Society, 69 ; sketch of, 69 - 7 1 ;

speech at Chester, 79, 312 ; Hon.

Life Governor, 312
Glasgow, early support from Synod and

Presbytery, 22, 84, 94, 95, 348 ; origin

of Glasgow Bible Society, 95« ; its

progress, 97, 347, 483 ; scriptures for

Catholic Schools, 99
Glenelg, Lord, see Grant, Rt. Hon.

Charles
Gloucester Auxiliary, opposition of

Bishop Huntingford, 80
Goa, Inquisition at, 28o« ; hostility of

R.C. Archbishop to Society's work,

292

Godalming Ladies' Association, 59
Goodenough, Rev. Dr, attitude to the

Society, 308, 309
Gordon, Capt. J. E., his part in Tests

controversy, 357, 358; his efforts at

Okhotsk, 4o6w
Goree, Scriptures for, 133
Gosner, circulation of his German New

Testament, 21 1, 423, 429; hostility of

R.C. clergy, 428
Gothenburg Bible Society, 201, 448, 449,

490 ; Apocrypha question, 454
Gothic version by Ulfilas, 26, 455 ; copy

presented to the library, 26
Gottingen Bible Society, support of

University professors, 425
Gottskalksson, Oddr, Icelandic translator,

163, 212

Grant, Charles, approves idea of Bible
Society, II ; member of first Com-
mittee, 16 ; Vice-President, 20, 63 ;
sketch of, 31, 38-39 ; interest in Indian
affairs, 165, 264, 266 ; befriends
Claudius Buchanan, 272 ; his death,

379

Rt. Hon. Charles, 31, 316; Vice-
President, 376

Gravesend, work amongst seamen, 326-28

Gray, Rev. Robert, Vice-President, 376,
382

Great St Bernard, Scriptures for Hospice,
426

Greece, distribution of Scriptures, 136-37;
War of Independence, 412-14

Greek Church, Modern Greek Testament
welcomed by clergy, 136, 137, 139;
dearth of Scriptures, 157 ; support for
Russian Bible work, 195, 196, 212,

INDEX

Greek Church {continued) —

224, 404, 411 ; Czar orders Modern
Russ version, 223, 413; the Patriarch
of Constantinople, 409, 412 ; Seraphim,
Russian Metropolitan, betrays the cause,
411-12, 416-18; Photi the archiman-
drite, 416; Russian Bible Society and
the Holy Synod, 418, 419, 421

Greek (Ancient) version, 102-3; (Modern)
version, 102-3, *37

Greenfield, Mr William, first Editorial
Superintendent, 382

Greenland, first issues of Eskimo version
(g.v.), 102, 103 ; early missions, 232 ;
the people, 233, 446 ; work of
Moravian missionaries, 233-34, 446

Greenock and Port - Glasgow Bible
Society, 48^, 95-96

Gregory, Greek Patriarch at Constanti-
nople, 409 ; his murder and burial,
412

Grey, Sir George and Lady, Hon. Life
Governors, 312

Grill, Mr Claes, member of first Com-
mittee, 16

Grimshawe, Rev. T. S., Hon. Life
Governor, 384

Guadaloupe, Scriptures for, 255

Guernsey, Scriptures for, 105 ; Auxiliary,
105 ; the Tests controversy, 354

Guildford, Ladies' Association, 59

Gujarati version, 274, 287

Gurney, Joseph John, Norwich Auxiliary,
73 ; Bible meetings at Earlham, 75 ;
Sorrow's description, 76-78 ; friendship
with Wilberforce, 385

HALDANE, ROBERT, his projected East

Indian Mission, 165
Hall, Rev. Robert, reply to Dr Marsh,

306 ; to Dr Maltby, 308
Halle, the Canstein Bible Institution

(q.v.), 147 ; depot at, 441
Hamburg-Altona Bible Society, 202, 206,

432, 488
Hammer, Von, report on the needs of

Turkey, 157
Hammersley, Mr Thomas, Hon. Life

Governor, 312
Hanover Bible Society, 202, 203 ; its

progress, 430, 433, 434, 488; the

Apocrypha, 135
Hardcastle, Mr Joseph, visits Paris, 8 ;

member of first Committee, 16, 45 ;

his death, 377
Mr William, monument to Rev. J.

Hughes, 365
Harrington, Mr J. H., Hon. Life

Governor, 384
Harrowby, Earl of, Vice-President, 64

Hastings, Marquis of, Vice-Pi esident, 64;
death, 381

Hayti, see San Domingo

Heber, Reginald, at Moscow, 192 ; Vice-
President, 376
— Richard, 283

Heidelberg University, the return to
faith, 425

Helgasen, Dean, diffusion of Icelandic
Scriptures, 447

Henderson, Rev. Ebenezer, leaves for
India, 164, 165 ; at Gothenburg, 169 ;
northern tour, 171 ; again in Copen-
hagen, 173, 445, 447 ; organises work
in Denmark, 185, 200, 216; visit to
Iceland, 200, 212-16 ; objections to
Turkish version, 390, 391 ; resignation,
391, 413 ; reconciliation, 392 ; receives
doctorate, 408;* ; his marriage tour.
410, 451; tour in Russia, 411-13;
later labours in Russia, 417 ; return to
England, 418

Hernosand, work of Bishop Nordin, 171-
72 ; Swedish Auxiliary at, 448, 490

Herrnhut, Saxon Auxiliary at, 204, 429,
432, 442 ; the Apocrypha, 437

Hertzog, Rev. Dr, work of German
Bible Society, 144; Hon. Life
Governor, 312

Hess, Chief Pastor, forms Zurich Bible
Committee, 189

Hesse-Darmstadt Bible Society, 489

Hey, Mr William, fund for Oriental
translations, 292; Hon. Life Governor,

384

Hibernian Bible Society, in ; early
progress (1805-17), 112, 113; effects
of the schools, 1 14 ; later progress,
(1817-34), 370-73

Highlands (of Scotland), condition in
1804, 87-91 ; dearth of Gaelic Scrip-
tures, 89 ; use of Erse Bibles, 89, 118;
protest of Dr Johnson, 90 ; issue of
Gaelic Bibles, 91, 93; Edinburgh Bible
Society undertakes distribution, 93 ;
reception by the people, 93 ; the
Society's later efforts, 347-49

High Wycombe, first regular Association,

55
Hildebrand, Carl, Baron von Canstein,

147

Hildesley, Bishop, completes Manx ver-
sion, 107 ; his bequest, 107

Hill, Rev. Rowland, the Tests controversy,
358 ; his death, 383

Hindi New Testament, 282, 292

Hindustani version, work at Serampore,
267, 274 ; Henry Martyn's New Testa-
ment, 275, 282 ; printed in England,
377

502

INDEX

Hoare, Mr Samuel, I22«

Mr W. Henry, member of first

Committee, 16

Hobart, Dr, opposition to American
Bible Society, 250

Hodson, Mr Thomas, member of first
Committee, 16

Holland, the Society's first issue of Dutch
Scriptures, 102, 103 ; Netherlands
Bible Society (q.v.) formed, 202, 210;
dearth of Scriptures, 203 ; Christian
policy in East Indian colonies, 288

Homburg Bible Society, see Nassau-
Homburg

Honduras, Scriptures for, 255

Hose, Mr John Daniel, member of first
Committee, 16

Hottentots, Moravian mission, 129;. read-
ing the Testament, 131

Howard, Mr Luke, the Tests contro-
versy, 359

Mr Robert, member of first Com-
mittee, 1 6

Howell, Rev. Mr, the Tests controversy,
358

Huell, Count Ver, meets his naval
opponent on Society's platform, 379

Hughes, Rev. Joseph, R.T.S. Com-
mittee, 9 ; suggests idea of the Society
and publishes essay, 10, 466 ; suggests
name of the Society, 12; Secretary, 15,
329> 333 5 sketch of, 42 ; at Earlham,
75 ; in Ireland, 109 ; Life Governor,
312; the Tests controversy, 355; his
death, 364 ; monument in Bunhill
Fields, 365

Hull Auxiliary, 67

Hungarian Bible Institution, at Press-
burg, 1 86, 488 ; press authorised, 187 ;
the Committee's work, 187, 211 ; sup-
pressed by papal influence, 423

Hungary, Hungarian Bible Institution
(q.v.), 186; dearth of Scriptures, 186 ;
the authorised version, 187; religious
liberty, 187^ ; times of persecution,
i88« ; progress of work, 218 ; opposi-
tion of Holy See, 230, 423 ; Great
Council of Jews (1650), 314

ICELAND, the country, 163 ; dearth of
Scriptures, 164, 212; efforts of Danish
Evangelical Society, 166, 185, 200 ;
preservation of Icelandic Scriptures at
Copenhagen, 168 ; Henderson's visit,
200, 212, 216; Icelandic Bible Society
(q.v.), 213; poetical tribute to the
B.F.B.S., 213-16 ; the Society's efforts,
219, 490; the Danish Bible Society,
446, 448 ; diffusion of the Scriptures,
447

Icelandic Bible Society, founded at
Reykjavik, 213, 490

India, Corresponding Committee at Cal-
cutta, 25, 259, 271-77; East India
Company's hostility to Missions, 164,
259, 260, 264-67 ; change of policy,
165, 266, 270, 293; the "Five
Chaplains," 259, 271, 272, 275, 276;
Serampore mission, 259, 260, 267-
70 ; Danish settlements and missions,
259, 261, 269; religious influence of
Anglo-Indians, 261-63 5 notable excep-
tions, 263 ; Vellore Mutiny, 266 ; Fort-
William College established, 270, 273;
the Society's early efforts, 273, 274 ;
Calcutta Auxiliary founded, 280 ; pro-
gress of native versions, 267, 274,
277-79, 282-94 ; Syrian Churches in
Southern India, 279, 295-98 ; Bombay
Auxiliary, 286 ; conversion of Brah-
mins, 286 ; Armenian Christians in
India, 287 ; Serampore translation
scheme, 292 ; East India Company's
powers limited, 293 ; first Indian
Bishopric, 293 ; summary of grants,
etc. (1807-17), 293-95 5 use of name
" India" in early times, 296

Inquisition, abolished in La Plata, 232;
sufferings of Syrian Christians, 279 ;
at Goa, 28072

Ionian Islands, Scriptures for, 141

Ireland, dearth of Scriptures, 22, 370 ;
Erse version (q.v.), 101, 115; Scrip-
tures for R.C. Schools, 109 ; visit of
Society's deputation, 109 ; condition
of the people (1805-15), no; Hiber-
nian Bible Society (q.v.), Ill ; other
Auxiliaries, 111-14; the London
Hibernian Society (q.v.), in -12;
Roman Catholic Schools, 1 14 ; pro-
gress of work (1817-34), 370; condi-
tion of education, 370 ; effects of Erse
Scriptures, 372

Irish version, see Erse

Irkutsk, Russian Auxiliary at, 406

Isle of Man, see Man

Italy, issue of New Testaments, 102, 103;
their reception, 137-40 ; Diodati's ver-
sion, 138

JACKSON, MR JOHN, Assistant Foreign

Secretary, 379
Joenicke, Rev. John, Berlin Bible

Society, 149; distress in Berlin, 153;

Life Governor, 312
Jamaica, 255 ; contributions, 256 ;

Auxiliary of People of Colour, 257
Japan, closed to Christianity, 301
Jaucourt, Marquis de, president of Paris

Protestant Bible Society, 393

INDEX

503

Java, death of Dr Leyden, 283 ; Auxili-
ary formed, 289, 294; transferred to
Netherlands Bible Society, 289 ; dis-
tribution of Chinese Scriptures, 300

Jerram, Rev. Charles, Life Governor,
312

Jersey, Scriptures for, too, 105 ; Ladies'
Association, 105

Jesuits, destroy Polish Scriptures, 204 ;
hostility to work in Russia, 415 ; in
Prussia, 428

Jews, Tartar Old Testament found in
Crimea, 226 ; Great Council at Ageda
— Messianic hopes, 314; Bible work
amongst, 375, 424

Johnson, Dr, and the Gaelic Scriptures,
90

Johnston, Sir Alexander, his efforts in
Ceylon, 285, 286, 378 ; Life Gover-
nor, 312

Jones, Mary, her story, 465-470

— Rev. Thomas, Scriptures for Wales
— co-operation with Rev. T. Charles,
7,468

Jowett, Rev. Joseph. Editorial Superin-
tendent, 382

Rev. William, mission to Malta,

139 ; Hon. Life Governor, 384

Jutland, Bible Society, 216

juvenile Associations, an early example,
55« ; defended, 57

KAI.MCK version, begun at Sarepta, 181,
231 ; transferred to St Petersburg
Bible Society, 219, 224, 413, 491
Kalmuks, migration to China, 182
Karass, Scottish Mission, 177, 179; issue
of Tartar-Turkish Scriptures, 180, 230 ;
Dr Henderson's visit, 413 ; depot, 421
Karnata version, 282
Karolyi, Gaspard, Magyar translator,

187;;

Kashmiri version, 282
Kent, Duke of, 80, 377
Kieff, Russian Auxiliary at, 405
Kieffer, M. Jean Daniel, 389 ; revises
Turkish version, 390-92 ; first Agent in
Paris, 395-97 ; adopts colportage, 399 ;
his death, 401
Kiesling, Mr, dearth of Scriptures in

Central Europe, 23
Kirke, Rev. Robert, Gaelic translator —

mysterious end, 88w, 118
Knapp, Dr, Canstein Bible Institution,

148 ; visit of Mr Steinkopff, 185
Knill, Rev. Richard, work in Russia,

421

Kohlmeister, Rev. B., his Eskimo
(Labrador) translation, 253

Konigsberg Bible Committee, 156 ; dis-
tribution of Polish Scriptures, 156,
1 86 ; becomes Bible Society, 204, 487 ;
Dr Pinkerton's visit to hospitals, 424
Konigsfeld Bible Institution, 210, 489
Konkani version, work at Serampore,

293

Kragh, Pastor, Eskimo (Greenland)
translation, 446

Krasnoiarsk, Russian Auxiliary at, 406

Kreuznach Bible Society, 489

Krudener, Madame de, visit to Pastor
Oberlin, 162 ; predicts French disas-
ters, 206 ; influence on Czar Alexander,
207

Kwains, the, Stockfleth's translation,
452

LABRADOR, reception of Scriptures,

253-54 ; see Eskimo

Ladies' Bible Societies, early examples,
55« ; objections, 58 ; first regular
Association, 59 ; Dudley's rules, 59,
6 1 ; origin of his idea, 59-61
Ladinische New Testament, 146
Lamennais, Abbe de, attack on the

Biblical movement, 394
Lapland, issue and distribution of New

Testament, 171-72
La Plata, 232

Lassar, James, Chinese translator, 274*2
La Tour, Waldensian Bible Society, 489
Latrobe, Rev. C. J., Scriptures for

Hottentots, 129-31

Lauenberg-Ratzeburg Bible Society, 489

Lausanne Bible Society, formed for

Canton de Vaud, 204, 426, 433, 488 ;

issue of Ostervald's French Bible with

notes, 432; the Apocrypha, 433, 435

Law, Rev. Dr, opposes the Society,

308-9
Lea, Mr. R., Alderman, member of

first Committee, 16
Leidekker, Dr Melchior, Malay version,

288

Lee, Samuel, supervises Syriac New
Testament, 296 ; Cambridge protest,
338 ; superintends issues of Malay,
Hindustani, and Arabic Scriptures,
377 ; defends Turkish version, 391
Leo XII., Pope, attacks the Society in

his first Encyclical, 379
Leyden, Dr, Oriental translations, 278,
283 ; sketch of, 283-84

University MS. of Turkish
version, 203, 388, 390
Library of the B.F.B.S., founded —
Granville Sharp's gifts — contents at
end of half century, 26 ; the Bible of
Mary Jones, 466

504

INDEX

Licarrague, John de, Basque version, 398

Lieven, Count, superintends Protestant
Societies in Russia, 417 ; opposes
policy of Seraphim, 418 ; president of
new Protestant Bible Society, 419

Lindsay, Rev. H., aids work in the
Levant, 140

Lithuania, condition of the people — the
Society's efforts, 155, 210

Lippe-Detmold Bible Society, 489

Liverpool, Ladies' Bible Society, 62 ;
Auxiliary formed, 67

Earl of, Vice-President, 64, 82, 382

Livonia, condition of the people, 178 ;
Bible Society founded at Dorpat (q.v.),
179 ; Mr Paterson's visit, 225

London, earliest Auxiliary movement,
47-48; work of Southwark Associations,
56; City Auxiliary formed, 80; Thames
Union Bible Committee and Merchant
Seamen's Auxiliary, 326 ; the Society's
anniversary meetings (1805-17), 309-
1 1 ; first meeting in Exeter Hall, 356 ;
list of Auxiliaries and contributions
(1806-17), 475-79

London Hibernian Society, work for
Irish schools, III-I2, 371 ; its effects,

II4> 372

L.M.S., founded, 3, 377; resolution to
distribute French Scriptures, 8 ; be-
ginning of Travancore Mission, 264

London Newfoundland School Society,

373

London Society for Promoting Chris-
tianity among the Jews, 375
Londonderry Bible Society, see Derry
Lothian, East, Bible Society, 95, 482

West, Bible Society, 95-96, 482

Louisiana, 236, 244-45 > dearth of Scrip-
tures, 248 ; Bible Society (New
Orleans), 244-45, 24&
Llibeck Bible Society, 202, 488 ;

Apocrypha difficulty, 437
Ludwigsburg Auxiliary, 430
Lund, Swedish Auxiliary at, 217, 448,

456, 49°

Luther, his cell at Wittenberg, 432
Lymington, Ladies' Association, 59
Lyngbye, Rev. Mr, Norse Gospel for
Faroe Islanders, 446

MACAULAY, ZACHARY, approves idea of
Bible Society, 1 1 ; member of the
first Committee, 16 ; the Clapham
circle, 30 ; interest in West Africa,
132 ; Syriac New Testament, 295

Macbride, Dr, edits Arabic Bible, 377 ;
Hon. Life Governor, 384

Mackintosh, Mr John, Hon. Life
Governor, 384

Macleod, Rev. Dr Xorman, the Society's
first supply of Scriptures to the High-
lands, 92

Madeira, Scriptures for, 135

Madras, first Christian Church built,
261 ; press and type for Tamil Scrip-
tures, 278, 293

Magyar version, 187?*

Mahratta (Marathi) version, progress of,
at Serampore, 267, 274, 282, 292

Maitland, Mr A., member of first
Committee, 16

Governor - General, president of

Colombo Auxiliary, 285

Malacca, branch Society at, 292, 294 ;
distribution of Chinese Scriptures, 300 ;
press at, 301

Malay version (Dutch East India
Company's), 288 ; Calcutta Auxiliary,
295 ; the Society's edition, 377

(Low) version, 289, 294

Malayalam version, 274, 279 ; the
language area, 279

Malaysia, dearth of Scriptures, 288 ;
circulation of Chinese Scriptures, 300-1

Maldivian version, 278, 284

Malta, depot established — its central
position, 137-38; remarkable appeal of
a Roman Catholic, 138; C.M.S. re-
presentatives sent, 139-40; Auxiliary
formed, 142

Maltby, Dr, his attack on the Society, 308

Man, Isle of, issue of Manx version
(q.v.), 102 ; demand for English
Scriptures, 108 ; the Society's later
grants, 373

Manchester and Salford Auxiliary, 52,
362, 47i

Manchu version, Borrow at St Peters-
burg, 383

Manx version, 102, 103, 106 ; history of
the translation, 106-9 5 in use UP to
1872, logw

Marine Bible Society, the first — formed
at Falmouth, 119, 326

Marriage custom (Switzerland), 205
(Brunswick), 425

Marsden, Samuel, 3

Marsh, Dr, opposes the Society at
Cambridge, 71, 72, 306, 307

Marshman, Joshua, missionary at Seram-
pore, 259, 260, 270, 284 ; Chinese
translation, 274^, 378

Martin, Mr Ambrose, member of first
Committee, 16

Martyn, Henry, his Persian New Testa-
ment, 219, 280 ; Persian Passion Play,
220; the "Five Chaplains," 259, 280;
his Hindustani New Testament, 275,
282 ; sketch of, 275 ; his death, 221

INDEX

505

Mary Jones, story of, 465-70
Massachusetts Bible Society, 242, 243,
248 ; friendly actions in war of 1812,
246-47
Mauritius, Auxiliary formed, 129 ; slave

emancipation, 387
Mecklenburg - Schwerin Bible Society,

489

Merchant Seamen's Auxiliary, 326-28
Methodius, Sclavonic version, 223
Metternich, Prince, proposed work in
Austria, 227 ; influence on Czar
Alexander, 416
Middleton, Thomas Fanshawe, first

Bishop of India, 293

Mills, Mr Samuel, drafts Constitution for
the Society, IO ; attends first meeting,
12 ; member of first Committee, 16,
45 ; visit to Ireland, no
Milne, Rev. William, the Chinese
version, 300, 301, 378; distributes
Chinese Testaments, 300 ; press at
Malacca, 301

Milner, Dean, Vice-President. 32, 64 ;
replies to Dr Marsh, 307

Joseph, 271

Mitau Auxiliary, see Courland
Mohammedans, in West Africa, 133 ; in
India, 286 ; Abdullah and Sabat, 290-
91
Mohawk version, St John's Gospel, 25,

103 ; its distribution, 251
Mohilev, White Russian Bible Society,

229

Moira, Lord, see Hastings
Moldavia, dearth of Scriptures, 157, 227
Moluccas, Christian population, 288 ;

Chinese Scriptures, 301
Mongolia, 183 ; Buriat chiefs translate

Scriptures, 405, 413
Monte Video, Spanish Testaments for,

231
Montgomery, James, aids work of the

Society, 353

Monthly Extracts, first issued, 325
Montleza, M., edits Basque version, 398
Moravian Mission to the Hottentots,
129-31 ; settlement at Sarepta, 181 :
Auxiliaries at Herrnhut, etc., 204;
Greenland Mission, 232-33, 446 ; Lab-
rador Mission, 253 ; their first West
Indian Mission, 255« ; Paramaribo
Mission, 256

More. Hannah, 31, 81, 384
Morrison, Rev. Robert, sketch of, 299 ;
Chinese version, 300, 378 ; his first
convert, 301

Moscow, Rev. J. Paterson's visit before
burning of, 192 ; preservation of
matrices of Georgian type from fire,

223 ; Auxiliary established, 196 ; first

anniversary, 411
Muir, Mr William, early agent in

Scotland, 85, 95
Munich, German Scriptures, 429; depot

opened, 431
Miinter, Dr, promotes work in Denmark,

200, 448 ; the Apocrypha question,

453

Murray, Rev. Dr, delegate from American
Bible Society (1851), 374

NAMAQUA version, 132

Napoleon, invasion of Prussia impedes
Bible work, 149-53 > Berlin Decree,
150; anti-British policy, 167, 170,
I77> I9%t 246j 283;* ; march to
Moscow, 189 ; retreat, 193, 195, 196 ;
his abdication, 198 ; escape from
Elba, 207 ; in St Helena, 132, 209

Nassau Hall (Princeton) Bible Society,
244, 248

Nassau - Homburg Bible Society, 210,
489

Naudi, Cleardo, remarkable appeal, 139

Naval and Military Bible Society, 3, 328

Neitz, Conrad, Kalmuk version, 181

Nepean, Sir Evan, Vice-President, 64,
286

Nestorian Church, connection of Syrian
Churches in Southern India with, 297 ;
traces in China, 297-98

Netherlands Bible Society, 202, 211,
434, 488 ; Malay Scriptures, 289,

433-34

Neuchatel Bible Society, 489
Neu-Wied and Wied - Rinkel Bible

Society, 210, 489
Newbigging, Mr Archibald, early agent

in Scotland, 85
New Brunswick, 251
Newfoundland, 251 ; schools — grants to

London Newfoundland School Society,

373

New Jersey Bible Society, 239, 242, 248

New Orleans Bible Society, see Louisiana

New Ross Bible Society, 112

New South Wales, 129

Newton, Rev. John, his friends — Rev. T.
Charles, 6 ; Wilberforce, 38 ; David
Brown, Claudius Buchanan, 272 ; his
death, 312

New York Bible and Common Prayer
Book Society, 242, 248, 250

New York Bible Society, 242, 244-45,
248

Nicholas, Czar, suspension of the Russian
Bible Society, 418 ; sanctions Pro-
testant Bible Society, 419

5o6

INDEX

Noel, Hon. and Rev. Baptist, 353 ; the

Tests controversy, 358, 361
Hon. and Rev. G. T., Life

Governor, 312 ; the Tests controversy,

361

Norse version for Faroe Islands, 445
Northampton Auxiliary, 78-79
Norton, Captain, Mohawk translator,

25

Norway, Norwegian Bible Society (q.v.),
217 ; dearth of Scriptures, the K wains,
451-52; visit of Hon. Charles Shore,
457 ; Dr Paterson's visit — agency at
Christiania, 458-60

Norwegian Bible Society, 217, 490 ; re-
organised, 450, 452, 457 ; declines to
adopt Apocrypha regulations, 453, 459

Norwich Auxiliary, 72-75

Nottingham Auxiliary, 48-49, 471

Nova Scotia, 92, 251 ; Scriptures seized
by U.S. privateer, 246; Auxiliary at
Halifax, 251 ; at Pictou, 252

Nuremberg, first Continental Bible
Society, 23 ; transferred to Basel, 24,
143 ; circulation of Scriptures, 423

Nylander, Rev. G. R., Bullom transla-
tion, 134

O'BEIRNE, BISHOP, Vice- President, 64,
378

Oberlin, Henry Gottfried, 161 ; tour in
France, 330 ; death, 393

Pastor, 23-24, i8i« ; women's work

at Ban de la Roche, 59-61 ; bio-
graphical sketch, 157-162 ; visit of
Owen, 329; death, 331

CEsel, Isle of, Russian Auxiliary, 225,
491

Okhotsk, 406

Old Swan Stairs, 9

Oriya version, 267, 274, 282 ; completed,
292

Osnaburg Bible Committee, 189

Ostervald, version issued at Paris, 393 ;
issued at Lausanne with notes and
Apocrypha — breach of Society's rules,

432-33

Ouseley, Sir Gore, Vice-President, 64 ;
Henry Martyn's Persian New Testa-
ment, 219-22

Owen, Rev. John, supports the Society,
12 ; appointed Secretary, 15 ; biogra-
phical sketch, 44-45 ; his attitude to
Female Associations, 58 ; reply to Mr
Twining, 267 ; Life Governor, 312 ;
visits Pastor Oberlin, tour to Switzer-
land, 329, 393, 425, 426 ; History of
the Society, 332, 343 ; death, 333

Oxford Auxiliary, 8l, 307-8

PAISLEY FEMALE BIBLE ASSOCIATION,

55«
Pali version, at Serampore, 282 ; in

Ceylon, 286
Papoff, M., secretary of Russian Bible

Society, 378
Paramaribo, 255 ; Moravian Mission,

256

Paris, dearth of Scriptures, 8 ; Owen's
visit — Protestant Bible Society estab-
lished, 393 ; Agency established, 395-
401 ; visit of London deputations, 399,
401; colportage adopted, 399-401;
M. de Pressense appointed agent, 401

Protestant Bible Society of, 393-95 ;

limits of its constitution, 395, 402 ; the
Apocrypha question, 435
Parry, sails with Eskimo Gospels, 378
Pashtu (Afghan) version, 278, 284, 293
Paterson, Rev. John, leaves for India,
164-65; supervises Icelandic New
Testament, 166 ; the siege of Copen-
hagen, 167; Stockholm, 169; northern
tour, 171; visits Finland, 172, 174;
marriage, 173, 196; in St Petersburg,
!77> r83, 191, 192; plans for Russian
Bible Society, 193-94; forms Auxiliaries,
196 ; travels in Europe, 202, 225 ;
objections to Turkish version, 390 ;
resignation, 391 ; agent in Scotland,
392 ; Czar confers doctorate, 4o8w ;
Russian tour with Dr Henderson, 411-
13 ; close of work in Russia, 417-20 ;
tour in Norway and Sweden, 458-59
Paxo, Isle of, the legend of Pan, 141
Penang, Sabat in, 291 ; branch Auxiliary,
292-94 ; Chinese Scriptures for, 300- 1
Penrose, Sir Charles, Mediterranean
commander, aids Society's work, 140-41
Pepperell, Sir William, Vice-President,

20, 63

Perceval, Rt. Hon. Spencer, and North-
ampton Auxiliary, 78 ; his murder, 79
Pernau and Fellin, Russian Auxiliary, 225,

491

Persia, Henry Martyn's work — the
Passion Play — Persian New Testa-
ment presented to the Shah, 219-22
Persian versions, Henry Martyn's New
Testament, 219, 289, 291 ; printed at
St Petersburg, 222 ; early version of
the Gospels, 280;* ; Sebastiani's Gospels,
282

Pestalozzi, Dr Pinkerton visits, 425-26
Philadelphia Bible Society, 242-48
Phillips, Rev. G. W., the Tests contro-
versy, 358

Mr Richard, rules for Auxiliaries,

49 ; for Associations, 54 ; Life Gover-
nor, 312

INDEX

507

Philo-Judean Society, 375

Photi, his opposition to Russian Bible
cause, 416

Pictou Auxiliary, 252

Pinkerton, Rev. J., missionary at Karass,
r77> 179 » Hungarian Scriptures, 187 ;
formation of St Petersburg and Moscow
Bible Societies, 196 ; organises work
in Holland, etc. , 2O2 ; finds Turkish
version at Leyden, 203, 388-89 ;
personal, 223, 410 ; tour in Russia,
225 ; finds Tartar version at Chufut
Kale, 226 ; organising work in Poland.
228 ; secretary in London, 383 ;
Armenian (Modern) version, 396 ; in
Constantinople, 408 ; Georgian version
at Mount Athos, 410 ; return to Si
Petersburg, 410 ; tours in Central
Europe, 424, 429, 432 ; Apocrypha
difficulty, 436, 453 ; first Agent at
Frankfort, 438, 441-42

Pius VI., approves circulation of the
Bible, 229;?

VII., 379

Plato, Archbishop, 178

Platt, Mr Thomas Pell, 361

Poland, Scriptures for Poles in England,
102 ; Berlin Bible Society's issues,
152. 154, 186 ; distribution by Kdnigs-
berg Bible Committee, 156, 186 ;
dearth of Scriptures, 204 ; Polish Bible
Society, 203-4, 227-28

Polish Bible Society, established by the
Czar Alexander's order, 228 ; its pro-
gress, 230, 492
versions, 204

Pomare, King, aids Tahitian translation,
302

Pomerania (Swedish), Bible Committee
189

Poor, Scriptures for — at home, 54«, 119 ;
on the Continent, 143, 148, 173, 185,
186, 189, 219, 231, 373, 491

Porteus, Dr, Bishop of London, the
Society's Constitution, 17 ; \ ice- Presi-
dent, 20, 63 ; Clapham circle, 32 ;
Arabic Bible, 133; replies to attacks
of "Country Clergyman," 303-4; death,

313
Portugal, issue of Scriptures, 102, 103,

231

Potsdam Bible Society, 203
Preservation of Scriptures, at Copenhagen,

1 68 ; at Moscow, 223
Pressburg, Hungarian Bible Institution

(?.».), 1 86
Pressense, M. Victor de, appointed

Agent in Paris, 401
Pretyman, Rev. Dr, opposes the Society,

308

Prince Edward Island, 251, 327

Prisoners of war, British prisoners in
France, 1 19 ; French and other
prisoners in Britain, 98, 124; their
gratitude, 124, 125, 127 ; American
prisoners, 126-27

Prisons, Elizabeth Fry's work, 121, I22«;
Scriptures for, see Criminals

Prussia, Berlin Bible Society (q.v.}, 148 ;
French invasion, 149 ; condition of
the people, 151-55 ; the Cossacks in
Berlin — national uprising, 197 ; dearth
of Scriptures, 210; the return to faith,
424-25 ; opposition of R. C. clergy, 428

Prussian Bible Society, formerly Berlin
Bible Society (y.v.), 203; progress,
425, 427, 431, 434, 487 ; collections
in Protestant Churches, 433 ; the
Apocrypha question, 435, 437

Pyt, M., supervises Basque version, 397 ;
effects of its issue, 399

QUATREMKRE, M. DE, Oriental versions,

396
Quebec Auxiliary, 252

RAFFLES, SIR STAMFORD, befriends
work in Batavia, 289

Randolph, Bishop, opposition to the
Society, 68, 304

Ratisbon, Roman Catholic Bible Society,
147 ; visits of Mr Steinkopff, 188,
211 ; issue of Wittman's version, 430

Reading, first regular Auxiliary, 48-49,
66, 471

Reformation, Tercentenary celebrations
424

Reiche, Mr, his efforts in Denmark, 454

Religious toleration, granted in Hungary,
i87« ; in La Plata, 232

R.T.S., founded, 3, 377; its connection
with the founding of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, 9-11

Revel, Russian Auxiliary, 196, 225, 491

Reyner, Mr Joseph, part in origination
of the Society, 9 ; member of first
Committee, 16, 45, 166

Reynolds, Captain, distributes Scriptures
at San Domingo, 257

Richardson, Rev. W., Hon. Life Gover-
nor, 384

Richmond, Legh, 75, 338

Riga, Bible Society, 196 ; Russian Auxili-
ary, 225, 491

Roberts, Rev. John, Charles's Welsh
revision, 26

Roman Catholics, the Society's efforts
for — Bavaria, 24 : Scotland (schools),
99; Ireland (schools), 109, 371;

508

INDEX

Roman Catholics (continued) —

Switzerland, 146, 2 1 8, 423 ; Germany,
188, 203, 218; France, 207, 395, 398,
402 ; Europe generally, 211, 423, 429,
438, 442, 444 ; South America, 232
Roman Catholic approval — a friendly
Irish priest, 114-15, 372; the Pope's
Nuncio in Spain, 135-36 ; Italy, 138 ;
appeal from Malta, 139; France, 145,
392, 400 ; Ratisbon Roman Catholic
Bible Society, 147 ; Bohemia, 186 ;
Russia, 195 ; Buenos Ayres, 232 ; New
Orleans, 245 ; Prussia, 428
Romanese, see Roumansch version
Rome, Church of, attitude to translation
and circulation of the Bible, 17, 229^ ;
Jesuits destroy Polish Scriptures, 204 ;
work opposed in Poland, 228 ; work
opposed in White Russia, 229 ; inter-
dict in Austria-Hungary, 229, 423,
429 ; attitude in Buenos Ayres, 232 ;
opposition of Archbishop of Goa, 280;?,
292 ; the Apocrypha, 334 ; Douai
Bible issued in N. Ireland, 373 ; Pope
Leo's attack, 379 ; De Lamennais'
attack, 394 ; destruction of Basque
Gospels, 398 ; hostility of Jesuits in
Russia, 415 ; in Prussia, 428
Romilly, Sir Samuel, 120
Ronneberg, Mr, assistant Foreign Secre-
tary, 329, 379

Rontgen, Rev. Mr, his efforts in Den-
mark, 454
Rosenblad, Baron, work in Sweden, 217,

450 ; Apocrypha question, 453
Rosenstein, Bishop, view of the Apo-
crypha, 454
Roumansch (Romanese) New Testament,

144, 146, 185-86

Rugby Auxiliary, its part jn Tests con-
troversy, 354

Russ (Modern) version, 223, 409, 413
Russia, Czar approves work in Lapland,
172 ; in Finland, 175 ; Russian Bible
Societyprojected, 177-78,191-94; needs
of Esthonia and Livonia, 178; Scottish
Mission at Karass, 179-80; Moravian
settlement at Sarepta, 181 ; the Czar
sanctions St Petersburg Bible Society
{q.v. ), 195 ; it becomes Russian Bible
Society (q.v.), 222; dearth of Geor-
gian Scriptures — preparation of Russ
(Modern) version (q.v.); the Sclav-
onic version, 223 ; tour of Dr Pinker-
ton, 408 - 10 ; Drs Paterson and
Henderson, 411-13; words of Sera-
phim at Moscow Anniversary, 411 ;
his change after preferment, 412,
416-17; Jesuit intrigues, 415-16;
Protestant branch societies, 417 ; the

Russian Bible Society suspended, 418 ;
Protestant Bible Society established,
419, 422; the Society's grants (1817-
34), 419 ; work of Rev. R. Knill, 420

Russian Bible Society, formerly St
Petersburg Bible Society (q.v.), 222;
Czar's personal interest in its work,
223, 404 ; gift of Bible House, 224 ;
progress, 224, 227, 230, 492 ; Mr
Pinkerton's tour, 225 ; Papal opposi-
tion, 229; anniversary of 1819 — a
notable assemblage, 404-8 ; variety of
translations and issues, 406-7, 491 ;
effects of the work, 408, 414 ; issue of
Russ Scriptures, 413 ; alarm of the
clergy, 414 ; resignation of Prince
Galitzin, 416 ; policy of his successor,
Seraphim the Metropolitan, 416-18;
the Society suspended, 418 ; summary
of its work, 419, 420

Ryder, Hon. and Rev. Henry, Vice-
President, 64, 317, 355, 376, 382

SABAT, his Arabic translation, 275, 283 ;

his career, 289-91
Sacy, De, his French version, 206, 218

Baron Sylvestre de, revises Turkish

New Testament, 390 ; literary apprecia-
tion of the Society's work, 392 ; under-
takes Oriental versions, 396
Saigor Islands, dearth of Scriptures, 288
Sailors, Scriptures for, see Seamen
St Euphemius, Georgian translation, 409
St Gall Bible Society, 189, 210, 488;

the Apocrypha question, 437
St Helena, Auxiliary, 132; Napoleon

at, 132, 209
St Kitt's, 255, 256
St Martin, M., revises Modern Armenian

version, 396

St Petersburg, Rev. J. Paterson's visit —
proposed Bible Society, 191 - 93, 194 ;
Czar Alexander sanctions St Petersburg
Bible Society (q.v.), 195; Sir Gore
Ouseley's visit — Henry Martyn's
Persian version, 219-22; Borrow
engaged to print Manchu version, 383 ;
Rev. R. Knill's efforts, 420

Bible Society, 193-95, 222 ; early

progress, 196, 219; becomes Russian

Bible Society (q.v.), 222, 491
St Thomas (Apostle), in "India" —

"Christians of St Thomas," 296-97
(Island), the first Moravian Mission,

255*
St Vincent, Granville Sharp and the

Caribs, 256

Salt, Mr, his good offices in Egypt, 140
San Domingo (Hayti), Scriptures for, 255,

257> 258 5 its political changes, 257

INDEX

509

Sanskrit version, 274, 282, 292

Santa Cruz (St Croix) Bible Society,

445
Sarkies, Mr Johannes, Scriptures for

Armenians — his offer, 287
Saxon Bible Society, 202, 204 ; Scrip-
tures for the Wends, 204, 424, 427,
428 ; progress, 434, 488 ; Apocrypha
difficulty, 435, 437
Schaffhausen Bible Society, 210, 488
Schelling, Erlangen Auxiliary, 432
Schnell, Emanuel, Hon. Life Go%rernor,

384

Schools, Scriptures for — Glasgow (Roman
Catholic), 99 ; Irish, 112, 114, 371-72 ;
South African, 132; Polish, 156;
French, 397 ; Pestalozzi's school,
426 ; cheap edition for Sunday schools,
380

Schreder, Mr H., member of first Com-
mittee, 16

Schroter, Rev. Mr, Norse translation for
Faroe Islanders, 445

Schwabe, Dr, work in Germany, etc.,
202-3, 2O5 5 Life Governor, 312

Schwartz, the missionary, 261 ; East
India Company's tribute, 265-66

Schwarzel, German version, 147

Scilly Isles, 105

Sclavonic version, 187, 223

Scotland, privilege of the King's Printers,
8, 347 ; early support from Presby-
teries, 22, 84 ; condition of the Low-
lands in 1804, 86 ; rise and effect of
Scottish Auxiliaries, 94 ; independence
of action reserved, 96-97 ; formation of
Associations and Branches, 97 ; French
prisoners of war, 98, 124 ; the Apocry-
pha controversy, 337, 339, 344-46,
349 ; Dr Thomson's violence, 346 ;
new Auxiliaries formed, 346, 348 ;
cholera visitation (1831-32), 362;
Sabbath service on an emigrant ship,
374 ; Dr Paterson's Agency, 392 ;
Auxiliary system up to 1816-17, 482-
84 ; see also Highlands

Scott, Rev. Thomas, dearth of Scriptures
in Wales — correspondence of Rev. T.
Charles, 6, 468 ; his influence on Carey,
268 ; his death, 378

Sir Walter, and Dr Leyden, 283

Scottish Bible Society, 95

Society for Promoting Christian

Knowledge, 3, 90 ; its co-operation,
84, 91
Seaman, Rev. W., his Tartar-Turkish

translation, 179

Seamen, etc., Scriptures for — Naval and
Military- Bible Society, 3, 328 ; first
Marine Bible Society, 119, 326;

Thames Union Bible Committee, 326 ;
Merchant Seamen's Auxiliary, 326-28

Sebastiani, L., Persian version, 283

Serampore, Baptist missionaries at, 259,
260, 269-70 ; progress of their trans-
lations, 267, 274, 282, 284, 292, 377-
78 ; printing office burned, 284

Seraphim, Metropolitan of St Petersburg
— changes after his preferment, 411-
12 ; president of Russian Bible Society,
416-18

Servia, dearth of Scriptures, 157

Sharp, Granville, presides at inaugural
meeting of the Society, II ; mernber
of first Committee, 16 ; first contribu-
tor to Society's library, 26 ; sketch
of, 32-35, his life-work, 132, 256, 314 ;
Life Governor, 312 ; his death, 313-15
— Mr William, 66

Shore, Hon. Henry Dundas, death in
France, 343

Hon. Charles John, Vice-President,

376 ; tour in Scandinavia, 457

Shusha, Scriptures for Basel Missionaries,
442

Sibthorp, Rev. R. W., Hon. Life
Governor, 384 ; visits Continental
Auxiliaries, 436-37, 440-41

Sicily, a Bible tour, 139-40

Sierra Leone, Auxiliary formed, 133-34

Sikh version, 282

Simeon, Rev. Charles, at Earlham, 75 ;
friendship with David Brown and
Claudius Buchanan, 272 ; influence on
Henry Martyn, 275 ; reply to Dr
Marsh's charges, 306*2 ; attitude on
Apocrypha question, 341

Singanfu, Nestorian tablet, 298

Sinhalese Scriptures, Netherlands version,
286 ; Tolfrey's revision, 286

Skara, Swedish Auxiliary, 217, 448, 490

Skipsholm, Swedish Marine Bible
Society, 448

Skurlason, Bishop Thorlak, revises
Icelandic version, 164

Slavery, Abolition of, efforts of
Granville Sharp, 36, 314; Wilberforce,
36, 385 ; Abolition Bill passed, 385-86;
Scriptures for the emancipated slaves,
386-87 ; the negroes' midnight service,

387

Sleswick - Holstein Bible Society, 216,
489 ; Scriptures printed at Deaf and
Dumb Institution, 447 ; progress, 448,
454, 460 ; the Apocrypha regulations,

454
Smissen, Mr James Gisbert van der,

Life Governor, 312
Smith, Rt. Hon. C., Lord Mayor of

London, 326

INDEX

Smith, Mr Joseph, member of first Com-
mittee, 1 6

Sydney, attack on the Society,

267

Mr Thomas, first Collector,. 15

Rev. Dr, Gaelic translator, 16

S.P.C.K., founded, 3 ; dearth of Welsh
Scriptures, 5, 6 ; publishes early Manx
Scriptures, 107-8

Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge among the Poor (1750), 3

S.P.G., its objects, 3

Society of Friends to the Hebrew Nation,

375

for the Support and Encourage-
ment of Sunday Schools, 3

Socinianism, charge against the Society's
French version, 332 ; see also Tests
controversy

Soldiers, Scriptures for, 119, 274, 329;
see also Prisoners of War

South Africa, see Africa, South

America, Scriptures for, 231, 255

Southey replies to Sydney Smith, 267 ;
attacks the Society's versions, 361 ;
attack on Van Ess, 439

Southwark Auxiliary, work of its Associa-
tions, 56 ; early contributions, 475

Spain, issue of Scriptures, 101, 103, 231

Sparke, Rev. Dr, opposes the Society,
308-9

Stae'l, Baron de, 393

Staffordshire Auxiliary, 69, 473

Stainforth, Mr R., member of first Com-
mittee, 1 6

Stavanger, Auxiliary, 450; depot opened,
459-60

Steinheil, Count, good^ offices in Finland,
174; president of Abo Bible Society,

175

Steinkopff., Rev. C. F. A., connection
with R.T.S., 9, 23, 161 ; takes part
in first meeting, 12 ; appointed
secretary, 15; sketch of, 43; first
European tour, 183, 184-89 ; meets
the Czar Alexander in London, 199 ;
second European tour, 210-11, 231 ;
Life Governor, 312 ; visits Pastor
Oberlin, 331 ; attitude on Apocrypha
question, 341 ; resignation, 381 ; fourth
European tour, 428-31 ; fifth con-
tinental journey, 431

Stephen, Mr James, member of first
Committee, 16 ; the Clapham circle,
30, 32

Stereotyping, 22, 148

Steven, Mr Robert, member of first
Committee, 16

Stockfleth, Rev. Mr, Kwain version, 452

Stockholm, Swedish Bible Society (q.v.),

174 ; Dr Paterson establishes Agency,
458, 460

Stowell, Rev. Hugh, Scriptures to
emancipated slaves, 386

Strasburg Bible Society, 393, 425

Stratton, Mr G. F., organises Oxford-
shire Auxiliary, 307 ; Hon. Life
Governor, 384

Stuart, Rev. James, Gaelic translator, 90

Rev. Dr John. Gaelic translator, 91

Suffolk Auxiliary, 55, 67

Sumner, Bishop (Winchester), his part
in Tests controversy, 355 ; Vice-
President, 376, 382

Bishop (Chester), his part in Tests

controversy, 355 ; Vice-President —
Archbishop of Canterbury, 376

Sunday Schools, see Schools

Sunderland Auxiliary, scarcity of
Scriptures, 97

Sundius, Mr C. , member of first Com-
mittee, 1 6, 45 ; Hon. Life Governor, 312

Surinam, 251 ; Moravian Mission at
Paramaribo, 252

Swabia, 24, 423

Swansea, first Welsh Auxiliary, 67, 472

Sweden, Swedish Evangelical Society
(q.v. ), 169, 174; dearth of Scriptures,
169, 449, 458; war with Russia, 170;
northern tour of Paterson and Hender-
son, 171 ; Lapponese Scriptures dis-
tributed by Royal Chancery, 171-72 ;
war with England, 173 ; Dr Brunn-
mark's tours, 201, 219; Swedish Bible
Society {q.v. ) formed, 174, 201 ; effects
of the work, 217, 450; expenditure
of the Committee (1805-17), 219;
Apocrypha difficulty, 453 ; Dr
Pinkerton's visit, 454 ; Hon. Charles
Shore, 457 ; Stockholm Agency
founded, 458, 460; grants (1817-34),
460

Swedish Bible Society, formed, 201 ; its
Auxiliaries, 217, 490; episcopal support
— effects of early efforts, 216-17; its
later progress, 448, 449, 450, 457, 460 ;
the Apocrypha difficulty, 435, 453, 455,
458 ; friendly relations, 443, 456, 458 ;
first Ladies' Society, 449

Evangelical Society, founded, 169,

490; its efforts, 172, 173, 185, 219;
becomes Swedish Bible Society (q.v.),
20 1

Switzerland, Romanese Scriptures for the
Grisons, 144, 146, 185 ; Steinkopff s
visit, 210 ; progress of work, 211, 218,
434, 443 ; Owen's visit, 329, 425, 426 ;
Auxiliaries issue monthly publication,
426 ; Ostervald's French Bible — breach
of Society's regulations, 432

INDEX

Sydney, in 1793, 122

Syriac version, 102, 103, 295, 377, 397 ;

antiquity of text, 296 ; portion of Old

Testament and Hymnary found in

China, 298
Syrian Churches, in South India, visit

of Claudius Buchanan, 279, 295 ;

" Christians of St Thomas," 296-97

TAHITI, Rev. W. Ellis issues first

Gospel, 302
Tamil version, 277 ; work at Madras,

278, 293 ; Calcutta Auxiliary, 294,

295

Tarn, Mr, Assistant Secretary, 9, 15,
45, 468

Tartar-Turkish version, work at Karass,
179 ; issue of Scriptures, 180, 226,
230 ; Old Testament found at Chufut
Kale, 226

Tasmania, 129

Tegner, Bishop, and Apocrypha, 456

Teignmouth, Lord, approves idea of
Bible Society, n; first President, 19-
20, 332 ; Clapham circle, 31 ; sketch
of, 39 - 42, 366 - 67 ; replies to Dr
Wordsworth, 304 ; influence of the
Society's work, 3O2W ; Apocrypha
controversy, 339-341* 346", 4355
pathetic coincidence, 343-44 ; Tests
controversy, 355-56 ; his death, 365

Telugu (Telinga) version, 274, 282, 293 ;
Ananda Ayer's translation, 283

Tengstrom, Archbishop, work in Fin-
land, 174, 195, 422

Tests Controversy, 354 ; constitutional
objections, 355 ; the meeting in Exeter
Hall, 356-59 ; the Committee's state-
ment 357 ; amendments proposed
and negatived, 357-59 ; action of dis-
sentients, 359-60

Thames Union Bible Committee, 326

Tholuck, Professor, German students
and the Scriptures, 442

Thomason, Thomas, 259, 276 ; secretary
at Calcutta, 285 ; in England, 353 ;
Hon. Life Governor, 384

Thompson, Rev. Marmaduke, Hon.
Life Governor, 384

Thomson, Rev. Dr Andrew, and the
Apocrypha, 345-46

Thorkelin, Justiciary, his good offices,
1 66

Thorlaksson, Rev. Jon, Icelandic poem
to the Society, 213-16

Thornton, Henry, approves idea of Bible
Society, 13; Vice - President, 20;
sketch of, 35-36 ; befriends Claudius
Buchanan, 272 ; his death, 296, 315

John (the elder), 6, 122

Thornton, John, Treasurer, 316
Thuringian Bible Society, Erfurt, 203,

205, 488
Thyselius, Bishop, befriends the cause,

449
Tingstadius, Bishop, new Swedish

version, 448
Tobago, 256

Tobolsk, Russian Auxiliary, 406
Tolfrey, Mr W., Pali and Sinhalese

versions, 286
Townsend, Rev. John, Life Governor,

312

Tranquebar, Danish Mission, 261, 293
Travancore, L.M.S. Mission, 264 ;

Malayalam Scriptures, 279
Treschow, Rev. Peter, tour in Norway,

451-52

Trinidad, 256

Trinitarian Bible Society, 360
Tsse-Ako, Morrison's first convert, 301
Turabi, revises Turkish version, 392
Turkey, condition of Christians in
Asiatic provinces, 139 ; Scriptures for
" the Seven Apocalyptic Churches/'
141 ; condition of European Christians,
157 ; war of Greek Independence,
412, 413

Turkish version, Ali Bey's translation,
203, 388, 408 ; issue of New Testa-
ment, 332, 390; Prof. Kieffer's re-
vision— objections of Drs Paterson and
Henderson, 389 - 92 ; issue of Old
Testament, 392
Twining, Mr, opposes work in India,

266-67
Tyndale Ward Auxiliary, 55

UDNY, GEORGE, 260, 264, 269

Ulfilas, Bishop, Gothic version, 26 ; (the

Codex Argenteus), 455
Ulster, Synod of, Bible Committee,

111-12

U.S.A., Scriptures for Highlanders, 93 ;
prisoners of war in Great Britain, 126-
27 ; its growth, 236 ; population in
1800, 237 ; its literary men, 238-39 ;
first independent production of English
Bible, 239 ; reaction of religious
thought, 240 ; the first Bible Societies,
241-48 ; summary of Societies and Asso-
ciations in 1814, 244 ; war with Britain,
246 ; seizure of Scriptures, 246 - 47 ;
progress of work (1815-16), 247 ; early
grants from London, 248 ; American
Bible Society (<?.v.) established, 249 ;
expansion of territory, 250

Upsala, Swedish Auxiliary, 217, 448,
490 ; Apocrypha regulations, 454 ; Dr
Pinkerton's visit, 455

512

INDEX

Urdu version, see Hindustani
Usko, Rev. J. F. , superintends Modern
Greek version, 137

VALPY, DR RICHARD, 66

Vansittart, Henry, 368

Right Hon. Nicholas ( Lord Bexley),

Vice-President, 64, 332 ; replies to Dr
Marsh, "Jl, 306 ; Tests controversy,
355) 356 ; President of the Society,
367 ; sketch of, 368-69

Vaud, Canton de, Bible Society, see
Lausanne

Vincent, Dean, Vice-President, 64, 316

Vorm, Dr Petrus Van der, Malay trans-
lator, 288

WAGNER, MR ANTHONY, member of

first Committee, 16
Waldbach Bible Society, 161, 329
Waldeck and Pyrmont Bible Society, 489
Waldenses, love of the Bible, 17, 186 ;

Bible Society, 489

Wales, scarcity of Scriptures, 5-7, 9-10,
468 ; early support from, 22 ; Auxili-
aries, 69, 472, 476-81 ; first issues of
Welsh Scriptures, 23, 101, 103-4 ;
their reception, 104 ; later efforts, 353 ;
story of Mary Jones, App. I., 465-70
Walker, Dr, Manx translator, 106
Wallachia, dearth of Scriptures, 157,

227

Ward, Rev. William, Baptist missionary
at Serampore, 259-60, 270 ; in Eng-
land, 377

Rev. William (rector of Myland),

replies to Dr Wordsworth, 305 ; Vice-
President, 376
Warde, General, 129
Warner, Levin, Turkish version, 388
Warren, Dr, Bishop of Bangor, 22
Watson, Bishop (Llandaff), Vice-Presi-
dent, 64, 316
Welsh version, Rev. T. Charles revises,

25-26

Wendish version, 204, 424, 427, 428
Werninck, Rev. Dr, Life Governor, 312
Wesel, Prussian Auxiliary at, 210, 487
Wessenberg, Baron von, his efforts in

Switzerland, 423
West Africa, see Africa, West
Westeras, Swedish Auxiliary, 201, 448,

490

West Indies, 255-58 ; progress of negro
population, 256 ; Scriptures for eman-
cipated slaves, 385-87 ; Creole Scrip-
tures, 445

Westminster, first Ladies' Bible Society,
59, 6 1 ; Auxiliary, 59, Si

Wexio, Swedish Auxiliary, 217, 448,
490 ; the Apocrypha, 456

Whitbread, Mr Samuel, 81

Wicliffe, 81, 187

Wilberforce, William, approves idea of
Bible Society, 1 1 ; member of first
Committee, 16 ; Vice-President, 20,
63; sketch of, 31-32, 36-38, 75, 122,
385 ; influence on East Indian policy,
165 ; Tests controversy, 355 ; his
death, 384-86

William I. of Wurtemberg, presents
Bible House to Wiirtemberg Bible
Society, 430 ; receives Dr Steinkopff,

431

Williams, Rev. John, incident at anni-
versary meeting (1836), 379-8o

Rev. Mr, of Birmingham, antici-
pates Bible Associations, 53

Wilson, Bishop, Manx translator, 106

Rev. Daniel, Tests controversy,

358 ; Vice-President, 376 ; Hon. Life
Governor, 384

Mr Joseph, member of first Com-
mittee, 16

Wingard, Bishop, attitude on Apocrypha

question, 454
Winnipeg, its growth, 236
Wisby, Swedish Auxiliary, 201, 448, 490
Wittenberg Auxiliary, 432
Wittman, Regens, Ratisbon Bible

Society — his German version, 147,

430

Wolff, Mr George, member of the first
Committee, 16

Rev. Mr, Eskimo translator, 446

Wordsworth, Rev. Dr, attack on the
Society, 304-5

Wiirtemberg Bible Society, 189, 488 ; its
progress, 430, 432, 434 ; Queen's
interest, 211; King's gift of Bible
House, 430 ; Apocrypha regulations,

437
Wuyk, Polish version, 204, 413

YAKUTSK, 406
York Auxiliary, 78
Youghal Bible Society, 1 1 2

ZAY, BARONESS DE, work in Hungary,

1 86
Ziegenbalg, Danish Missionary in India,

261
Zirian version, undertaken by Russian

Bible Society, 414
Zohrab, Dr, his Armenian (Modern)

version, 396
Zurich Bible Society, 189, 210, 488;

Apocrypha difficulty, 435

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